Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Mary Kageyama Nomura Interview
Narrator: Mary Kageyama Nomura
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Torrance, California
Date: July 9, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-nmary-02-0003

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TI: So let's talk about music a little bit, with your mother first. And tell me about how she was involved with music.

MN: Well, as a teenager, I understand, she would not go to school. She would cut classes and go to the music school where they taught dancing and shamisen, and they would have to call the parents to come get her because -- not call, but sent messages, and they would come after her. But every single day she would just cut classes and go to that school. So they finally gave up after how long, and they finally gave up and let her go to that music and dancing school. So first she learned to do odori and shamisen.

TI: And was this all in Los Angeles or in Japan?

MN: No, in Chiba, in Chiba, Japan, Tateyama, I guess it is.

TI: So as, it's interesting, so as a young girl, she was passionate about music and a little rebellious.

MN: Yes. We went to see the relatives in 1999. We never knew the relatives, so we went there to seek them out. And the cousin who was there said that she was a real rebellious child, very tomboyish and hop on a bicycle. Girls never rode bicycles, but she would hop on a bicycle and take off for the music school. And so they washed their hands of her because she would not become a regular, what a little girl should be. But that's how passionate she was about music and dancing.

TI: Oh, how interesting. And when she came to America, did she come with her parents?

MN: No, alone.

TI: Alone? And do you know about how old she was? Because earlier you mentioned she was young when she came.

MN: Very young. She must have been early twenties, if that.

TI: Wow, that really is adventuresome for a single woman to just come...

MN: Yes, but she was just a little different. [Laughs]

TI: And do you know what she did when she arrived?

MN: I have no idea. Only my sister who passed away would have all that. She had a wealth of knowledge about what my mother did, but now she's gone and no one knows.

TI: Wow.

MN: We never asked her things like that.

TI: How interesting. Your father, do you know anything about his family in Japan?

MN: All I know is they came from Okayama. We went to see -- that, 1999, we went to see that part of the family, too. And we went to the cemetery, and every tombstone there had Moritoki on it. It was all Moritoki clan. And they came from a group of potters. They made the pottery called... Bizen, Bizen-yaki. So we did go see some of the family there, and they could see the pottery that they made.

TI: So both your parents really came from a art background.

MN: Yes, yes.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.