In his book, Colorado’s Japanese Americans from 1886 to the Present, Chapter 23, Bill Hosokawa tells how three Nisei (second generation) Denver women visited the Smithsonian’s touring exhibit of early American quilts in 1995. After that visit, the three women initiated a similar project to tell the Colorado Japanese American story. They generated support, funding, supplies, and involvement from various community organizations.

“That was the beginning of a project involving seventy-two Japanese American women in Colorado, each offering a vignette about her family’s history in designs and pictures sewed into or painted on patches of cloth that were them mounted in groups of eight.” Pg 216-17

The initial showing of this project was in conjunction with the Smithsonian Exhibit, “Strength and Diversity: Japanese American Women 1885-1990 at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities in Arvada, CO. The exhibit was open to the public from November to January, 1995 – 1996.

Among the participating partners were: