Dr. Kyo Koike

Dr. Kyo Koike, a physician, came to Seattle in 1917 from Shimane Prefecture, Japan, to serve as a medical doctor in the Japanese community. On the side, Koike pursued his literary and artistic interests. He was a poet of considerable reputation. He taught and wrote Japanese poetry and founded two poetry clubs locally including Rainier Ginsha, a Seattle haiku society. He also was a hiker and an amateur naturalist.

His most remarkable talent was photography, a hobby he began shortly after his arrival in Seattle. He developed a style reminiscent of Japanese artistic tradition preferring landscape subjects and soft focus technique. His photographic prints were frequently published and he earned international recognition through exhibitions in the salons of Europe, Japan, the United States and South America. In about 1924 Dr. Koike was instrumental in founding the Seattle Camera Club as a means of introducing Native American and foreign-born photographers through club activities and exhibitions. He was the editor of its journal "Notan" until the club disbanded in 1929.

Unfortunately, his career was halted by World War II and the internment camps. During the war Dr. Koike served as a camp physician in a relocation center for Japanese-Americans at Minidoka and remained there until 1945. His camera was confiscated from him and he never returned to the photography business. He returned to Seattle after the war and passed away in 1947.