<Begin Segment 21>

TI: So tell me what Sacramento was like right after the war when you came. What was happening around the store and the community? Can you describe that?

KM: Well, not much. We took the girl to Lincoln School, you know, she went to Lincoln School. We had a property, we... I think we stayed with my uncle for a while until we found a place.

JS: So your father started the grocery store in Sacramento.

KM: Yes.

JS: And your uncle started the flower store?

KM: He had a flower shop.

JS: At the same time, right after the war?

KM: Right after the war. He and my auntie, his wife, they started that for a long time.

JS: What was the name of the...

KM: Royal Florist.

JS: Royal Florist.

KM: Uh-huh. Then he became ill, so he sold the business to somebody else. But during that time, I already had started my own on Eleventh Street. I was in that business for twenty year, floral business. And I taught ikebana in the store, back of the store.

JS: So explain how that happened. When did you start the flower business? You and your husband started that?

KM: No, he was, they transferred to another, relocated to, on Tenth Street they started, the brothers, brother-in-laws, three brother-in-laws started a grocery store there. And I started my flower shop. And during that time, I was doing a lot of flower arrangement, Western-style and all that.

JS: So the brother-in-laws started the grocery store.

KM: Yes, on Tenth Street.

JS: On Tenth Street. So this is after redevelopment.

KM: Uh-huh.

JS: So the Fourth Street Market then became this market on Tenth?

KM: Because it was relocated, see. Took everything around Fourth Street, Fifth Street. So we all had to relocate to Tenth Street. That's our Sacramento Tenth Street, Japanese town there. Little, what's left.

TI: When they did that move from Fourth Street to Tenth Street, how did that change the Japanese community when they moved it? Did you see any differences in terms of what happened to the community?

KM: Well, no, they were all together. They had plays and things. Everything was all Japanese, they had band and everything, they were real close, everybody, during that time. Because they had the Sakura band, Yamato Geikidan, they had all that, plays. They would do that every year about right now. Hardly any... they had koto and dancing, Japanese classical. But right now, hardly anybody doing that koto.

JS: So were your uncles involved with the entertainment in Sacramento as well?

KM: At first, yes.

JS: At first.

KM: Before he became ill, he was a big entertainer.

JS: So describe how you decided to start your flower store. There was a transition from your... did you work with your uncle Roy for a short time?

KM: First, and then I started my own. Because they wanted to retire, so I said, "Well, I might as well continue," so I liked the business. The flower, I mean, I liked the flowers to create funerals, weddings, and things. I just loved flowers.

JS: Where did that come from, your love for flowers? When you were younger?

KM: Yes. My mother used to laugh that I would not throw one stem of flower away. So I really loved flowers.

JS: So it must have been hard when you were in Jerome and you didn't have real flowers.

KM: That's right.

JS: So you had paper flowers?

KM: Uh-huh.

JS: Wow.

KM: She would make paper flowers.

JS: Uh-huh. So it was wonderful to have your own flower store.

KM: Yes, it was. I liked to create things, but I gave that up.

JS: Oh. And so you would teach, you began teaching ikebana in the back of your store.

KM: In the back of the store, uh-huh. Mrs. Maeda's daughter was my first student. Isn't that funny?

JS: So how many years have you taught flower arranging?

KM: Since 1964.

TI: So forty-five years. And to this day, you still teach --

KM: We came out in 1945, huh, 1945? So then I was doing American-style first, Western-style, 1945, '46. And then I transferred to Japanese.

JS: So where did you study American-style flower arranging? The city college?

KM: No, just my own.

JS: Oh, on your own. Who was your ikebana teacher, then, when you started studying Japanese floral arrangement?

KM: Japanese? There was Mrs. Nishimi, but mostly I went to Japan. I have a newspaper article that the Sacramento Bee, on my...

JS: Flower arranging? Teaching?

KM: Uh-huh.

JS: Good, we'd love to see that. Have any, are any of your students teaching now? Have they gone that far?

KM: They don't want to, 'cause it takes time and money.

JS: Yeah, the commitment.

KM: 'Cause you have to correspond with Japan. And then you have to get, in Japan, the materials' right there. But here, you have to gather your own, so no one wants to work hard. You're a florist, you have to work hard. You have to do funeral, wedding, same time, you know. Sometimes I didn't sleep at night, I worked in the store.

JS: So did any of your children help at the store?

KM: Yeah, my daughter did, but son, they all helped deliver, but they didn't want to do the flower shopping or... too hard. 'Cause it's live material, you have to make it last-minute.

JS: So when did you close the store?

KM: It's been... I don't know when, but it's been long time now, maybe.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.