Betty Kobayashi Issenman

Betty Kobayashi Issenman
Kobayashi in the 1940 yearbook of McGill University
Born(1921-01-12)12 January 1921
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died10 March 2020(2020-03-10) (aged 99)
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada
OccupationEthnologist
Notable workSinews of Survival (1997)

Betty Kobayashi Issenman (12 January 1921 – 10 March 2020) was a Canadian ethnologist. As an independent researcher, she was an expert in Inuit clothing.[1]

Early life and education

Kobayashi was born in Winnipeg and raised in Montreal, the daughter of Mary Campbell Jamieson and Harry Shinsuke Kobayashi.[2][3] Her ancestors were Scottish and Japanese.[4] Her father served in the Canadian military during World War I,[5] and was a close friend of the family of S. I. Hayakawa in Winnipeg.[6] She spoke in favor of a boycott on Japanese goods as a delegate to the Canadian Youth Congress in 1938.[7]

She graduated from McGill University in 1940,[8][9] and from the Montreal School of Social Work in 1942.[10] She earned a master's degree from the University of Montreal later in life.[2][11] During World War II, her father's business was seized while he was in Japan, her brother served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and she and her sister were fingerprinted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[12]

Career

Issenman worked as a social worker and a costume designer.[13] She volunteered at McCord Stewart Museum. She also held a pilot's license and was active in the Montreal chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an organization for women pilots.[2][11] In 1955 she was one of the six members of the Congress of Canadian Women to visit China as a guest of the All-China Federation of Women.[14]

Issenman's 1997 book, Sinews of Survival,[15] was considered "a richly detailed account of Inuit culture as expressed through clothing."[16] She was appointed as a member to the Order of Canada in 2002.[17]

Selected publications

  • Sinews of Survival: The Living Legacy of Inuit Clothing (University of British Columbia Press, 1997: ISBN 978-0774805964)[16]
  • "Many Disciplines, Many Rewards: Inuit Clothing Research" (2014)[18]

Personal life

Kobayashi married fellow McGill alumnus Arnold Jacob Issenman in 1947, and had three daughters.[2] Her husband died in 2010,[4] and she died in 2020 in Bedford, Nova Scotia, at the age of 99.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Soroka, Joanne (23 July 2020). "Betty Issenman's research on Inuit clothing was seminal, but her Peking duck was legendary". The Globe and Mail.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Betty Kobayashi Issenman, CM (obituary)". The Gazette. 2020-03-14. pp. C14. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Obituary for Mary Campbell Kobayashi (nee Jamieson)". The Montreal Star. 1976-09-23. p. 52. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 "Arnold Jacob Issenman (obituary)". The Gazette. 2010-12-29. p. 54. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Family of H. S. Kobayashi Here Fears He May Still be in Tokyo". The Gazette. 1941-12-08. p. 15. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Haslam, Gerald W.; Haslam, Janice E. (2011-11-01). In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S.I. Hayakawa. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 14, 22–23, 101. ISBN 978-0-8032-3764-3.
  7. ↑ "Japanese Delegate Favors Boycott on Native Land; Wants Embargo Placed on Goods Imported from Nippon". The Toronto Star. 1938-05-23. p. 2. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ McGill University, Old McGill (1940 yearbook): 42.
  9. ↑ "40 McGill Delegates Named to Conference". The Gazette. 1937-12-16. p. 9. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Social Workers Get Diplomas; Graduates Are Told Importance of Task During War Period". The Montreal Star. 1942-05-27. p. 15. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 Moore, Brian (1972-11-25). "The sky's the limit for the ladies of Montreal's flying 99ers". The Montreal Star. p. 81. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Lewis, Brian; Nerbas, Don; Shaw, Melissa N. (2025-11-14). McGill in History. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. ISBN 978-0-2280-2594-8.
  13. ↑ "The Importance of Being Earnest (advertisement)". The Montreal Star. 1978-03-30. p. 26. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "CCW Members to Visit China". The Globe and Mail. 1955-07-21. p. 12. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ Issenman, Betty (1997). Sinews of Survival: The Living Legacy of Inuit Clothing. UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-0596-4.
  16. 1 2 Waters, Paul (1997-12-06). "For Inuit, clothes spell survival (review)". The Gazette. p. 117. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Luc Plamondon among 99 recipients of award". The Gazette. 2002-07-06. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-07-01 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Eicher, Joanne B.; Evenson, Sandra Lee (2014-08-14). The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture and Society. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 106–115. ISBN 978-1-60901-870-2.
  • Tess Elsworthy, "McGill University's Racial Exclusion of Japanese Canadians, 1943-1945" (Master's thesis, McGill University 2020); Issenman gave an oral history interview to the author of this thesis.
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