Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Asano Terao Interview I
Narrator: Asano Terao
Interviewers: Tomoyo Yamada (primary), Dee Goto (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: May 19, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-tasano-01-0005

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[Translated from Japanese]

TY: You climbed mountains with your grandfather to look for matsutake mushroom when the season came.

AT: There, there was a big mountain, my grandpa's mountain. We called matsutake "naba", back then. Naba was matsutake.

TY: Naba?

AT: We said naba, naba naba.

TY: In your dialect.

AT: In my dialect. People told us that we should come out on Saturday since naba had grown big. Not on Sundays, I had Sunday school. People would tell us or send the information through others to us. There was no telephone back then, so people would send the information through somebody. Then, my mother would buy a lot of things, and told me to take them to my grandpa. My grandpa's mountain was large. He had a big water reservoir in the mountain. Sometimes the river dried up from drought, and the water shortage problems occurred. It was a mountain with rice fields, like steps on the hillside. The fields were made on the side of the mountain. So he had made his own reservoir. He pulled the stopper board, and as he pulled the board up, a small amount of water flew down the hillside into the rice field. When there was little water coming into the field, he would draw water from the reservoir into the rice field, into his own field.

TY: So your grandfather was a farmer?

AT: Yes, he was a farmer from a long time ago. He was taking care of the village often as well. He was farming and taking care of the village, almost, he hired people. There was one girl, about fourteen, who was hired to go shopping and do some delivery. She was the one who went shopping. Also, how old was he, about twenty-eight or nine. There was a boy, too. He was working in the field. Sometimes, all the people in the neighborhood helped him. So he was a farmer.

TY: Did you help your grandfather to do some fieldwork?

AT: Oh, no. I never did it. [Laughs] I only went up the mountain with him when we went matsutake hunting in the season of matsutake. That's the only thing I did.

[Interruption]

TY: We were talking about the story that you went to the mountain with your grandpa to get matsutake. In Japa -- in the U.S., people keep it secret where they find matsutake. Was it the same in Japan?

AT: No, no, it was our own mountain in Japan. My grandpa had a big mountain. There was a big water reservoir at lower level. So we reserved water in it, and there were steps, the fields and rice fields were made into the steps like this, made on the hillside. Then we watered our rice fields by drawing water from the reservoir when we had droughts.

TY: Your grandfather owned the mountain, fields, and all others...

AT: Yes, they were all in my grandpa's mountain.

TY: What did you do when some people secretly went up to your grandfather's mountain to look for matsutake...

AT: Yeah, there were many people who went into the mountain, but we acted like we didn't notice. Those people were usually the ones who worked in our fields, so we let them go in. But, when they found many, some people gave us matsutake that they found and told us that they found them when they went into the mountain. See, when we treat people well, they would treat us well back. So, those people who worked in the field, when they told grandpa that the harvest was not that great that year, he told them that they didn't have to pay so much in that case. In this way, everybody called him a master, and people appreciated him as the master of the head family. When we visited him, everybody welcomed us and took care of us. When I went for farewell, they would give things to me and say, "Please take this home with you and eat with your mother." I thanked them and returned home. But, it is ridiculous, I wouldn't go there nowadays, not today. When I went to the grandpa's, he would give me various kinds of really good candies. He was looking forward to my visit. I used to say that I was visiting him because I wanted the candies.

TY: Well, were you surprised when you heard the custom of matsutake hunting after you came here?

Everybody keeps the location where they can find matsutake to themselves.

AT: No, no, there were many growing in his mountain. My grandpa used to say that matsutake would grow in places like this. I had heard him say it, so I would go to such places to find matsutake. When people asked me where I was going, I told them, "I am thinking about going to this area in the mountain to find matsutake." Once we went, there was a telephone pole, a telephone pole made of a tree. It was lying in the mountain. It had already been molded. Then, when we looked underneath the pole, it looked like there were some matsutake. "Look, there seems to be some matsutake here," and my friend and I went to look there, then we found small matsutake. Underneath the pole. This time, we said aloud, "Look, there are a couple matsutake here!" Then those who were working on it came to us. Then, when we searched in that area, we found six or seven of them; where there was a big tree lying on the ground. Matsutake were growing underneath of the tree. Nowadays, I don't go any more, but we, all the Japanese, went back then, hoping to find matsutake. As early as five o'clock in the morning, people went out.

TY: One of the entertainments of Japanese Americans in Seattle, isn't it.

AT: Yes, yes. We all went. Nowadays, when I ask people to go with me, they say, "No, no, I don't want to go. I don't have to eat it. It's better if I just buy it and eat it." [Laughs] Also, there is no mountain of my own. When I went to Japan, there was my grandpa's mountain, I searched in the mountain and found them. There was a water reservoir, a big one like this. I washed matsutake there and returned home.

TY: You shared those with your neighbors.

AT: Yeah, I gave some away.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.