Born Hitoshi Shigemitsu’s Artworks

Hitoshi (Jim) Shigemitsu (重満 仁) was born in Kagoshima, Japan in 1949. Coming from a family who lived in the United States, he heard stories about the West from his family and relatives when he was about 3 years old and dreamed about going to North America. He finally came to Canada in 1970, where he later became a Canadian citizen, met and married his wife in 1977. He and his family lived in Calgary in 1978, where he worked as a carpet layer for several years. After that, he and his family moved to Edmonton, where he worked in various jobs as a Japanese teppan cook, a French chef, and a sushi chef. One day, he told his family that he wanted to do oil painting, so they bought him his first set of oil paints and canvas for Christmas in 1994. Since then, he has painted sceneries and landscapes in Alberta as well as of his hometown in Kagoshima.