Bikki Sunazawa

He was born as Hisao Sunazawa in 1931 to parents Koa-kanno and Peramonkoro Sunazawa who were prominent figures in the movement for Ainu land and civil rights. "Bikki" was a nickname from his boyhood. His mother Peramonkoro was also one of the most respected Japan's textile artists of the twentieth century.[2] In his late teens, Sunazawa worked with his family and other people to establish a new settlement. He left Hokkaido for Tokyo at the age of 21 to get caught up in the Japan's avant-garde art world of the 1950s and 1960s. He was later recognized as a leading sculptor in Japanese post-war art. By the 1970s, he returned to Hokkaido and was heavily involved in the Ainu liberation movement.[3]

Having to disguise his Ainu art because of the ban imposed by the Japanese in the early twentieth century, Sunazawa devoted all his life to the defense of the Ainu culture. He was one of the first initiators of establishing connections with the Native American tribes, through the exhibition of some of his sculptures in British Columbia where he settled for a time. With his fame growing, he continued to use his art to disseminate Ainu culture via explanations of his creations, interviews, relations within the artistic community, and so on.[4][5]

As a sign of respect, two Japanese amateur astronomers, Kin Endate and Kazuro Watanabe, gave his name to the minor planet 5372 that they discovered on November 29, 1987.[6]

Bikki Sunazawa died on January 25, 1989 because of bone marrow cancer in the Sapporo Aiiku Hospital. The Sunazawa's sculptures are still on display, and his studio "Sun More" is open to the public at Otoineppu, near the Teshio River on Hokkaido Island.