Johnson Kakutani

Johnson Kakutani was born in Parlier, CA to Sadao Kakutani and Tadako Okumoto Kakutani on May 14, 1935. In 1944, Johnson and his family were sent to Hila River Internment Camp. He graduated from Parlier High School in 1952, after playing on Parlier’s Sierra League Championship Basketball Team, running track and was in the band. After college, Johnson, along with co-workers, went into hatcheries and sexed chickens for several years. Later, Johnson purchased the property from his parents, and continued farming for 30 years.

Johnson, always the adventurer, joined a motorcycle club called TCFT (Tulare County Family Travelers). He met Ian MacNeilly, a television repairman, who saw Johnson wearing a Gold Wing jacket and said, “Johnson, do you ride motorcycles? You should join our club.” Johnson did, and became the official photographer for the club, riding his Gold Wing 1800, and putting 100,000 miles on his bike, traveling all over the United States. He had the time of his life. He often stated, “I feel guilty; I’m having so much fun.”

After one motorcycle trip to Arizona, he phoned Kathleen Mac Neilly, the daughter of his friend Ian, Kathleen had known Johnson through the Motorcycle Club where she rode with her father. She and Johnson were acquaintances for 18 years. Johnson asked her, “Can you come over to my house so we can talk?” When she arrived, he said, “If I asked you to marry me, would you?” She thought, “Why not?” Five months later they said, “I do.”

Johnson, whose photographs are legendary, wanted to take the photos for their wedding. Ironically, that meant there were no wedding photos that included both Johnson and Kathleen. A few weeks later, they had wedding photos of the two of them taken at Woodward Park, with Johnson still taking the photos, but with a tripod’s assistance.

When Johnson and Kathleen moved to Kingsburg, he began taking photos of Chamber of Commerce events. One day he said to June Hess, owner of Svensk Butik, “The Chamber really needs it own photographer.” June replied, “We have a photographer.” “Who?” he asked. “You are going to be our photographer,” she answered with a chuckle. From then on, and for over ten years, Johnson was the official Chamber photographer.

Two years ago, Johnson discovered origami, when his neighbor children brought him origami they had folded for him. The art of folding paper became an activity he enjoyed as much as photography. With his generous nature, many people in Kingsburg have been gifted with one of his personalized pieces. Anyone who received an origami from Johnson should know that there was nothing random in the gift received. The color and design had specific meaning and were selected by Johnson specifically for the recipient.

The last event Johnson photographed was on November 11th when he took photographs of the Veterans Day Breakfast at the Senior Center. He folded a red, white, and blue star for each veteran there. Red symbolizes inner strength, beauty, and love. White symbolizes hope for the future. Blue represents loyalty. Stars mean good luck, health, and admiration. Knowing Johnson’s commitment to make his origami more meaningful than a folded piece of paper, Veterans should know what that star means. A final gift from Johnson.

A question many ask is, “How did Johnson get such an unusual first name?” Wherever the name originated, Johnson always had a sense of humor about it. One of the first thing Johnson did when moving to Kingsburg, was visit June Hess. He told her, “The reason I’m in this town is my name is Johnson and I’m a slant-eyed-Swede.”

Johnson died on November 14th and is survived by his wife Kathleen Kakutani and two daughters Dawn Kakutani and Penny Nelsen.

Funeral Services for Johnson Kakutani will be held on January 18 at 11:00 AM at the Parlier Buddhist Church 360 S. Newmark, Parlier 93648.