<Begin Segment 3>

JK: And were your grandparents and parents, were they involved in any Japanese or Japanese American organizations?

PD: I didn't meet my grandfather, but my grandmother was quite active in the San Jose Buddhist Church, and she had some memorabilia in the San Jose Buddhist Church, still hanging up there today.

JK: And what about, what about sporting activities?

PD: I know my father was a, a champion sumo wrestler, and he was quite well-known, and he was known as the "Ryumon," which means "Dragon." And he, he won titles all over California, and at one time, during his sumo era, he was asked to leave to go to Japan to compete. And he never did that, he just turned it down, 'cause I guess he couldn't leave the family business, because it was just beginning at the time.

JK: Where did he compete in the area?

PD: Well, they had a sumo, sumo baseball, recreational area here, I think it was on the, looked like it was on Jackson and Sixth Street. And after that, I think there was a pottery taking over the place after that, on that site.

JK: Who did he compete against? Were they people from in the area, or they, or people from all over?

PD: I think there were people coming in from all over, 'cause he was, people from Fresno knew him, and people from the Sacramento area knew him, and they all, they always talked about my dad being a real strong wrestler. And I guess even some people from L.A. area knew him, and they talked about him.

JK: So how did he get into, to wrestling, or sumo wrestling?

PD: I'm not sure about that, but, 'cause I think he must have been about, in it from probably late teens to the time he was maybe about twenty-one or something, and after that he got married.

JK: And that ended his, his sumo wrestling days?

PD: Yeah, I think his sumo wrestling days was over when he started raising a family.

JK: And at the, you know, at the time that he did wrestle, were there any non-Japanese Americans that, that he competed against, or that were into sumo?

PD: Not that I remember, him competing against any Caucasians or anybody else. But people knew about him, about his sumo, as I can remember.

JK: So it was popular amongst the Japanese American community as well as spectators and fans from outside the community.

PD: I think so.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.