<Begin Segment 6>

TI: So, describe your parents' roles within the Kent community. What, how they get involved with either... in church activities or other community events?

MT: Like I mentioned, Mother was, just loved the shamisen that she started to learn in Japan and five years old. And so by the time that she came over here she was very, I guess, efficient in playing the shamisen, but Dad knew odori, learned odori as a pastime, I believe. And so with all the Japanese immigrants down in the valley, the main social life of the Isseis at that time was the White River Buddhist Church, which is at Thomas, Washington, which is halfway between Kent and Auburn and so all the immigrant Hiroshima people or other prefecture people that were Buddhist, met at the White River Buddhist Church and that was the social life. But to go beyond that, we had shibais and odoris which probably started when I was about five or six years old. And that was the social life of the Issei at that time.

TI: And both your parents were really involved in both of those, in the shibais and the odori, they were really involved?

MT: Yeah. All the children and the Isseis would cooperate, and without any talent were able to do odoris and shibais and of course, some of the senseis, like Tura Nakamura with the mimasukai in Seattle, came out to show us the, how to do shibais and so... and there was a Mr. Hayashi, like we mentioned all that paraphernalia in the church now. He was from Japan, he was a shibai teacher and so he came out and taught us, so... the Issei people really enjoyed it very, very much. In addition, Dad used to have all of the Japanese movies come, be brought into Seattle, I mean, from Seattle into Kent and Auburn and... in those days it was a silent movie and it's a naniwabushi. A man came along with 'em, and he... I don't know how to explain it, but it's a, naniwabushi would explain the whole movie, all the Japanese samurai movie from beginning to the end.

TI: So this person would, as the silent movie was going on, would sort of narrate?

MT: Uh-huh.

TI: Would he play the roles, too? Would he do the voices or just more just explain the storyline?

MT: I think he played the parts, too, because he could play the onna part, the lady part and the men part and narrate the movie itself, so it's something to -- we never knew it. But it went on for quite a few years, until the motion pictures started to come in, I mean, with the talkies started to come in. We go back that far and the movies were shown at the IOOF Hall in Kent where all the Isseis would come and they'd, they'd really enjoy all the Japanese movies.

TI: Would mostly Isseis, or would the Niseis also, would some Niseis also go?

MT: Well, it was all... primarily Isseis because the Niseis were still young yet, were young kids at that time. In fact, I think my older brother, Henry, I think; I imagine he was about eight, ten, twelve years old at that time. So, when the movies were gonna come in, Dad would ask us to... the brochures, he'd take the car and we'd go to all the farmhouses and put 'em in the mailboxes so that they'll know that coming Saturday or the following Saturday we'd have the Japanese movies or the shibai so they have plenty of advance notice for... they all look forward to that, got together, so that was really our social life from the Isseis.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.