Memento Forest — katami, a multimedia dance performance

“Memento Forest — katami”, a new multimedia dance performance directed by Marina Fukushima to be presented at NOHSpace on June 5-6, 2026. The work nurtures the connections with loved ones after they have passed away through the objects, memories, people, and places that were left behind. The project invests in Japanese and Asian American communities, a sense of family, and intergenerational relationships. As grieving processes in Japan are often both personal and communal through various rituals and practices, the creative outlet of collaboration and performance serves as a grieving process, enriching communal acts of sharing, and collective healing.

The project will reflect on Marina Fukushima’s personal process of grieving after her father, Hiroki Fukushima, passed away in August, 2024. As memento “katami (形見)” in Japanese, constructed by two words “shape” and “to see”, the work seeks to perceive traces that conjure who he was as a father, grandfather, husband, Japanese immigrant, metal sculptor, and transnational artist.

The multi-media creation also incorporates video, photography, and audio from a series of workshops titled “Memento Archive - First Rainbows” at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC) and Kokoro Assisted Living.

Reflecting on a continuity and ephemerality of life and family, “Memento Forest — katami” cultivates a sense of lightness through the journey, opening layers of release and renewed communal relations.