In 1935, at Callahan's urging, Tokita joined the Group of Twelve, a progressive artists' collective which held several successful exhibitions. In 1936 his work appeared in four Group of Twelve shows, the 22nd Northwest Annual at the Seattle Art Museum, and the First National Exhibition of American Art at the Rockefeller Center Gallery in New York.Johns, Barbara. Signs of Home: The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita (University of Washington Press, 2011) p220.
