<Begin Segment 10>

DH: I'm gonna touch on a couple of prewar things that we hadn't talked about. I want you to explain about your mother and the chrysanthemums.

JH: Oh. My parents use what they call a "disbudding technique" on their chrysanthemums, and they would disbud the chrysanthemum's stem to one total flower at the very end of the stem, which grew into mammoth sizes. And they were noted for their display of these huge disbudded chrysanthemums; in fact, they were noted in the Seattle Times at one time. And some of the flowers were larger than my mother's head, and they were just things of beauty. I'm not sure that they developed this technique. I'm sure the technique had already been thought of in Japan, but they were primarily responsible for introducing those lovely chrysanthemums in Bainbridge Island.

DH: Are there any other memories that you have of Bainbridge Gardens or the island before the war that I didn't ask you about before?

JH: Well, of course, I was a little young to remember some of the significant things that happened, but as I said before, it was basically a nature's wonderland, and it was very enjoyable for everyone to come and see and visit. I still have people that come to me who have lived on Bainbridge in that time, and they would mention to me the fact that they would always make it a Sunday tour to come to Bainbridge Gardens, go to the grocery store, get an ice cream cone, and they would walk around the grounds of Bainbridge Gardens. That was part of their weekly entertainment. So it must have been a very treasured and gorgeous place, probably had a lot of natural aura that was truly soothing for their soul, and I think that's why they came. I mentioned before that there was a lot of fauna available in the form of fish and crawfish and trout. And then, of course, along the trail to Fletcher's Bay were the natural matsutakes that grew prolifically on Bainbridge Island. In fact, that was one of the noted things on Bainbridge, was to come to Bainbridge to pick matsutake. And there was even a fellow that became so famous that he was called Matsutake Joe. But, of course that doesn't exist today because of all the housing and the beautiful matsutake beds are gone.

DH: Mushrooms, you're talking about.

JH: That's right.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.