Densho Digital Archive - Fred Oda Interview (denshovh-ofred

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TI: So while we're talking about your dad, describe, then, what was he like? What were some of the things he liked to do?

FO: Well, he wanted to be an artist. He was, he liked, you know, like shakuhachi, he used to play shakuhachi, and he used to do penmanship, writing, what do they call it? Fude. (Also haiku and bonsai).

TI: Well, that's interesting, go back, so the shakuhachi, it's that bamboo flute.

FO: Bamboo flute, yeah.

TI: Did you ever hear him play?

FO: Oh, yeah. He used to practice at home, and we used to dread it when they had that Japanese, what do they call it, New Year's party and stuff, and you got to go in the front and play. [Laughs]

TI: And why would you dread the...

FO: Well, you know, pull a boner or something, you know. They used to have a shakuhachi club. Maybe about ten people, I guess, and women, a few women used to play that...

TI: The koto?

FO: Shamisen. Or koto? Is that the long one?

TI: Oh, the shamisen.

FO: Shamisen, yeah.

TI: It's interesting, the shakuhachi now is becoming a more and more popular instrument.

FO: Well, there's a Caucasian in San Francisco, he not only plays it, but he makes it, makes shakuhachi, yeah.

TI: Because my wife tried to actually play the shakuhachi, and it's a really difficult instrument to play. You have to really concentrate and work to master those sounds.

FO: 'Cause there's no reed on the mouthpiece, just a thin...

TI: Yeah. So, in fact, my wife worked for months, and she couldn't even make a sound, because you would have to work really hard, it was really a difficult instrument to play. So your father played the shakuhachi.

FO: Then he used to do the fude, and he liked haiku. Haiku.

TI: And so going back, in Japan, did he, what kind of education did your father have?

FO: I never did inquire about those things. [Laughs]

TI: Because this is a little unusual to come across an Issei man that...

FO: Yeah, this morning had a picture in the local paper featuring an old-time Watsonvillian, and they showed him playing tennis, playing tennis in those days.

TI: So that's unusual, too, who would he play tennis against? Other Isseis?

FO: Well, with some other Japanese, yeah. Got a picture of him with his partner, you know.

TI: Wow. Do you have that photograph?

FO: Yeah.

TI: And what was he wearing when he played tennis?

FO: Well, I guess, I don't know what kind of clothes they wore in those days. (Narr. note: white shirt and pants.) But they had the picture in that Buddhist Church centennial booklet, yeah.

TI: So he played the shakuhachi, he did haiku poetry, he played tennis, what were some of the other things he enjoyed doing?

FO: Huh?

TI: What else did he like to do?

FO: Well, like I said, he practiced penmanship, he'd get the black ink-like thing, and they scrape it and make their own ink.

TI: And so would he do these scrolls and things like that?

FO: Yeah, yeah, practice, yeah.

TI: Now, do you have any of those left, of your father's writings?

FO: No. But I have a bunch of scrolls that he brought from Japan, and one person told me I should have an expert look at it because pretty old stuff, you know.

TI: Yeah, you should. Some of that could be really valuable. So what about some other Japanese cultural traditions like tea or anything like that? Did he do kind of things, too?

FO: Yeah, he had a set of that ocha-yu, stuff. I don't know if he had it.

TI: So that would be the more traditional tea ceremony?

FO: Yeah. Ocha no yu, they called it, or something.

TI: And when would he do all this?

FO: Huh?

TI: When would he practice all these different things?

FO: At home, yeah.

TI: So after work, he would come home and do this?

FO: Yeah. Well, most of the businesspeople those days had the business in the front and they lived in the back. Or either that, or lived upstairs, yeah. No commuting like nowadays. [Laughs]

TI: So was that the way your dad was? Did you guys live at the barber shop?

FO: Yeah, in the back, yeah.