Densho Digital Archive
Preserving California's Japantowns Collection
Title: Kiyo Nikaido Morimoto Interview
Narrator: Kiyo Nikaido Morimoto
Interviewers: Jill Shiraki (primary); Tom Ikeda (secondary)
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: December 9, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-mkiyo-01-0015

<Begin Segment 15>

TI: Okay, so Grace, we're going to start again. And so I want to start because I know you do a lot with ikebana. So my question is, when did you first start ikebana?

KM: Well, I was interested outside of camp, but I just took briefly. A lady from, she came and taught us tea and little bit of ikebana. But that's just briefly, because we went to camp right away after that.

TI: So it was really in camp when you did... you really started more. So which camp was it that you...

KM: Jerome.

TI: So describe the class. I mean, how would they do ikebana in Jerome?

KM: Well, they were mostly old ladies. I was the only young one that was interested in it. So then my teacher would get the material. In Arkansas, we had a lot of material. Had a forest next door, our camp. And so she would get the material and she would teach us and then she gave us plastic flower, paper flower that she made.

TI: And when she went into the forests by Jerome, what materials would she collect? What are some examples of things she would bring back?

KM: Oh, she would bring back mostly, like, oak, and she taught us different ways.

TI: So this teacher just took materials that she found in nature, brought it back for her students and then you would work with those students.

KM: There were only four or five, that's all.

TI: When you were in class, you said there were mostly older women, so mostly Issei?

KM: Yes.

TI: I'm curious, in that class, describe what that was like in terms of the talk. What would people talk about in ikebana? What was it like?

KM: Well, let's see. She would give us, I believe I found some paper, but I don't know what I did with it. But she would draw a picture to show us. But her school was same as the one I... but she introduced me to the ikebana and I really liked it.

TI: One of the things I'm curious about is most Niseis, when they talked about the Issei, like their mothers or the Issei women, they always talk about how hard they worked all the time. But in camp, a place like Jerome, ikebana, it's one of those kind of rare times when the Issei women had some time to do something like ikebana. And so I'm just curious what the mood was in the class. Was there very much laughter, was there much gossip, there's talk, or what was that class like?

KM: Well, they would just talk regular, but it wasn't my age. I was in the '30s, and they were all older. They just talked among themselves. I just went and learned and then went on.

JS: So you said you were interested in ikebana earlier when you took tea. Where was that?

KM: In Madera. This lady came to the Japanese school and taught us tea and ikebana.

TI: So you're younger than the other women. The other thing that's a little different is you have a young child, this little toddler. How was it raising a toddler at Jerome? What was that like?

KM: Well, she followed me all over, because she was three. I took her on... there were a lot of babysitter that took care of her, too.

TI: So for example, when you took your ikebana classes at Jerome, was she there with you, or did someone else take care of...

KM: No, somebody else... my mother. And during that time, I was also typing and shorthand in Jerome.

TI: So you were pretty busy. You were teaching, you were a mother of a toddler, you're taking ikebana, so this was a pretty busy time for you.

KM: Very busy, yeah.

TI: And during this time, was your husband at Jerome, or was he...

KM: Yeah, he was in Jerome. He, since he had the grocery store and was a butcher, he was in charge of the meat department.

TI: Oh, good.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.