Michiko Sakamoto-Senge

Michiko Sakamoto-Senge | July 7, 1940 – January 31, 2024

Michiko Sakamoto-Senge loved parties. She loved attending and hosting them, reconnecting with old friends and sparking new friendships, asking questions with gentle and genuine curiosity. Always dressed impeccably, Michiko viewed parties as a festive opportunity to debut an elegant new pair of shoes or a piece of sublime jewelry.

Michiko loved gatherings because she loved people. She celebrated the accomplishments of others and cherished the opportunity to chat, commiserate, and laugh with her friends, some of whom she had held dear since childhood.

Michiko was born in 1940, into Japanese spiritual royalty: a long family lineage of hereditary head priests of Izumo Taisha, one of the oldest and most significant Shinto shrines in Japan. Her early life in post-war Japan was precarious but also dynamic and exciting. Michiko, an early and adept student of the English language, graduated in 1963 from Sophia University, the prestigious Jesuit-founded university in Tokyo, and then was offered a scholarship to Loyola University Chicago.

In 1964, few young Japanese were allowed to travel abroad and citizens were prohibited from taking Japanese currency out of the country. But Michiko, always independent and adventurous, was determined to continue learning, and her parents supported and championed her decision. She sailed across the Pacific on a cargo vessel, traveled across the U.S. on a Greyhound bus, and settled in Chicago, where she lived in the high-rise home of a generous American family with many other international students, to complete her Master’s degree in sociology.

Marrying her first husband, Ross Lambertson, in 1968, Michiko continued an arc of adventure. Setting off together to hitchhike and bus across Europe, Afghanistan, and India, they took a pit-stop in Tokyo before settling down in Victoria to build a family and launch their careers.

Social work, sociology, human rights, feminism, social justice, community building, teaching: her career and activism spanned two countries and four decades, but it always focused on lifting up the marginalized and challenging power structures to better support those on the outside. In 2012, Michiko was recognized for her contributions and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal.

Michiko was radiant and created joy wherever she went. She also sought out joy and beauty. She was an aesthete who loved gardens and arts of all disciplines. After a rewarding career teaching Women’s Studies, Sociology, and Japanese Culture at Camosun College, she took a far more active role in the arts. She sang, painted, studied Japanese tea ceremony, and wrote.

Scant weeks ago, she held a party to launch her self-published book, “Beauty of a New Land.” The book tells the stories of five immigrant women, celebrating their accomplishments and gifts to Canada, as well as honouring what they received from their new land. She was immensely proud of the book’s publication, which she created as a work in service to the women featured in its pages, and other women like them. It was a culmination of her professional and personal dedication to championing the power of women and their voices.

Michiko was a feminist, an inveterate traveller, a sailor, a bon vivant, a patron of the arts, and a world-class listener. She was a loving mother who passed along to her two children, Erik and Kristen, many of her values, including a thirst for travel, a love of the arts, a sense of justice, a dedication to deepening their understanding of Japanese culture, deep silliness, and most importantly: a love of family and friends.

Having remarried in the 1990s to her beloved husband Maurice Preece, Michiko is survived by Maurice, her children from her first marriage, Erik (Emma) and Kristen, grandchildren Yuzuru and Affie, step-children Trina, Megan, and David, step-grandchildren Kyley, Claire, Patrick, and Kate, and step-great-grandchildren Ben and Hayley.

She was supportive of all her family members but was particularly close to her two grandchildren, Yu-chan and Affie-chan, upon whom she doted.

Soon after she passed away of pancreatic cancer, on January 31, Michiko’s children received an outpouring of tributes. She was clearly loved by many, and she loved them back. She was irreplaceable, and she will be missed.

In lieu of flowers, consider supporting one or more of the following organizations (in no particular order) that Michiko supported: Alzheimer Society of British Columbia, BC Cancer Foundation, Arthritis Society Canada, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria Symphony, and Pacific Opera Victoria.