<Begin Segment 3>
[This transcript has been extensively edited by the narrator.]
SY: So I guess this might be a good time to go back and talk a little bit about your mother's family.
GN: All right. So we'll leave Grandpa Shinoda. [Laughs]
SY: Yeah, we'll leave him in San Jose and come back to him.
GN: Making shoyu. The family moved (to Martinez, California. Grandfather probably commuted to his shoyu business. My cousin remembers a salesman who sold Grandpa's shoyu and took orders) at that time, and my grandfather learned how to drive a car. He determined he was going to drive a car.
[Interruption]
GN: To go back to my mother's family, my mother's father was a scholar and read a great (number) of books. That's what I remember about my grandfather. He had bookcases full of books. He was a master calligrapher, and I used to sit by his side and watch him paint with a (Japanese) paintbrush. He taught me how to do a lot of kanji, all the different brush strokes and where you put the pressure, so forth and so on. I still to this day paint with a fude or Japanese paintbrush. I do watercolors, I pretty much am a plein air artist. I get my ideas right on the spot and paint right on the spot. I have (done) a lot of (plein air) paintings.
SY: So the artist in you came from your mother's side.
GN: Well, my father could draw very well, too. So I think it came from both sides. They were both very gifted people. And there were a lot of gifted people on my father's side of the family. In fact, one of my cousins on my father's side of the family said, "Gosh, I looked up Shinoda on the internet, and your brother (Lawrence) and our cousin Jean take up most of all the Shinodas on the internet." [Laughs] This cousin has a PhD himself. He was a professor of economics and a businessman, and he ended up as vice president of University of Texas in Arlington. That's his comment, my cousin, Philip Shinoda.
SY: And your brother, of course, we'll talk about later.
GN: But to get to my grandfather's side of the family, my grandfather Watanabe, his name was Tomoichi Watanabe and he was born (8/1/1877 in Oyabu machi, town, Gifu ken, prefecture, Japan). And his father was a very distinguished-looking scholar also. His name was Daijiro Watanabe (born 1/25/1844), and this is a picture of Daijiro taken in December 1906. This is my grandfather's album and I think it's interesting that everything is so well-dated and there are excellent notes. He has the family history.
SY: Can you show it toward the camera? Wonderful. So he was very distinguished-looking...
GN: Yes, Daijiro. And he was a scholar, too.
SY: So this was taken in Japan.
GN: This was taken in Japan, yes.
SY: And what part of Japan was your mother's family from?
GN: (My grandmother Masano Takenaka Watanabe was born October 3, 1882, in Ibi machi, town, Gifu ken, prefecture). They came from Gifu, Japan, which is a little bit north, more or less in the central part, but it's in Nagano Prefecture. We have been there to Gifu, and it's in the mountains. It's a very beautiful place, and they have a lot of rushing streams, a trout fisherman's paradise. You see people going up to Nagano Prefecture (adjacent to Gifu) either in the wintertime in their ski boots and in the summertime in their wading boots and their fishing equipment and so forth and so on. Nagano prefecture is in the mountains (like Gifu).
SY: So this would be your great-grandfather then.
GN: This would be my great-grandfather.
SY: And then he had how many children?
GN: I think he had (seven) children, (the first one died at birth). My Grandfather (Tomoichi was the third son) and then there (were two sister) that came to America that I know of, and the others remained in Japan. (Narr. note: The two sisters are Ko Watanabe born 12/21/1885 who married, by arranged marriage, Usaburo Arata who had a restaurant in Seattle, Washington, and Haru, burn 7/23/1888. She by arranged marriage married Frank R. Yamaguchi of Palm Springs, Colorado, an accountant for the railroad.)
<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.