<Begin Segment 18>

SF: Another big thing I understand in the Japanese community in those days was (matsutake) mushroom picking and gathering. How did, what kind of a thing was that, and how did people do it, and so forth?

YM: Well, we'd make it sorta, kind of a family affair and go out to the mountains, Mount Rainier or out to -- where, Shelton is it?

TS: Yeah, Shelton.

YM: And gather the mushrooms. And then they'd have a mushroom contest, where they'd bring the mushrooms to my dad's store, and he'd display it in front of Mitsuwado and have prizes for the biggest ones or most gathered or whatever. And some of the mushrooms were quite big. And that still continued after we came back from camp. And they didn't have -- did they have contests after the war? I don't remember, but --

CK: I think so.

TS: Yeah.

YM: It used to be a fun thing to go out to Mount Rainier or Shelton to gather mushrooms. And some of the families would bring their pots and kettles and their, or their -- and have a picnic out there, and make sukiyaki out of the mushrooms, and make a whole day affair of it.

SF: So it was kind of really a family-based kind of thing?

YM: Uh-huh.

SF: Would, would it be like...

YM: Or with friends.

SF: Like some people have their favorite fishing hole. Would people...

YM: Yes.

SF: Sort of keep it a secret if they had a really hot spot?

YM: Right.

CK: Oh, yeah.

YM: There's a lot of Isseis wouldn't tell their secret spots, too. And I know one lady, Issei lady, in Vashon, and the family don't know where she used to go get the mushrooms, and I guess --

TS: She wouldn't even tell her own family, huh?

YM: Well, I mean, they didn't ask her. I don't know.

TS: Oh.

YM: But she's gone now, and they don't know where she used to go pick them.

TS: You still go up?

YM: No.

TS: Oh. But still some go.

YM: Now, it's scary to go out, 'cause the Southeast Asians have taken over, and making a big business out of it. And they carry guns. And there was a big article in the paper about that.

CK: Yeah.

SF: Did the, did the number of mushrooms, or availability of mushrooms really decrease, or sort of after the war, or were there still lots of stock that people could really go after?

YM: Well, some -- depends upon the weather, I think. And some years, there weren't too many. I think a dry, dry season -- isn't it? -- that we wouldn't have too many mushrooms. But there's nothing like the northwest mushroom. It's different smelling, matsutake.

SF: So it's really a prized --

YM: Oh, yes.

TS: Oh yeah. When I was down in Portland, I heard about the Oregonians going down south of -- where was that?

CK: Florence?

TS: Yeah, Florence. So I called Eddie Sano up here, and he went all the way down there to get mushrooms. And he got 'em.

YM: Oh?

TS: That's quite a -- you know, I mean, almost like a...

CK: Yeah.

TS: Day's drive.

CK: So at least --

YM: I think in Vancouver area, too...

CK: Ten hours.

YM: Don't they?

TS: Yeah.

CK: Vancouver area? Yeah.

YM: Yeah. I know, I know people out in Snoqualmie or Snohomish area. They'd go out there, too.

TS: Plus, that new highway north.

CK: New one?

TS: North of Stevens Pass. The one that's get blocked up for the winter. They, they get 'em up there someplace.

CK: Oh, yeah?

TS: Yeah. The Californians get to buy 'em for $50 a pound, so --

CK: North Cascades?

TS: Yeah.

CK: North Cascades Highway?

TS: Someplace in there.

YM: And the Japanese -- we used, they used to send it to Japan, too.

TS: Yeah.

YM: And so the Japanese companies would pay anything to get the mushrooms. So the price of mushrooms just sky-high now. So $50 is nothing, I think.

TS: Yeah.

YM: It's terrible.

TS: The best is when someone gets, brings it to your house.

YM: Yeah.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.