Densho Digital Archive - Gladys Koshio Konishi Interview (denshovh-kgladys-01-0012)

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RP: Gladys, this is, you shared with me a story about this cultural ceremony that you were involved in, and you had a special uniform that you wore for that. Can you describe the uniform and tell us about the ceremony?

GK: [Holding up clothing] Well, yes. I'm not sure, you know, what ceremony it was, but there were several of us. I think about... must be around eight, nine ad ten year olds that wore this, because the older ones, I think, wore regular kimonos. But anyway, this is the top part, and it's kind of gauzy. And this was being stored at the Fort Lupton Buddhist Temple, and they were, I think they were afraid that these things were gonna just get where they wouldn't be, you know, they'd fall apart, so my brother asked me if I would like to have this and I said, "Yes." So anyway, this is the top part that we wore, and the belt, and the skirt. I'll just put this here. And this is the skirt, and it tied on the side there, and I think for us it must have been floor length, but then the most interesting part is this headdress that we had. And actually, this sat on a little, kind of like a pad, and I don't think I got the pad for this, it didn't sit directly on the head, we had a little padding that it sat on, and it tied under the, under this, under our chin. But it was, it's very delicate, and so this is one of the things, I think I was around nine years old when we wore this.

RP: Did you do any type of a dance or a ceremony?

GK: I think it was just a, I don't think we danced in this, I think it was just a ceremonial thing. And I think when the Denver Buddhist Temple opened, and I'm not sure because the Fort Lupton temple was born in 1940, I think we wore this before the temple was built. So when the Denver temple was opened and I'm gonna say... gosh, I don't know. It was after the Fort Lupton, that they had a ceremony, and there were children wearing this very same thing. So I think they used it for Buddhist ceremonies, I think, because before the Fort Lupton temple was built, our church services were held at the school where a lot of the things were held. So I think that's this part of it. But it's very, it's hang... these things are just like in the temple. They have a lot of these intricate, delicate things hanging, and so I set it on -- it's hard to store, so I have it sitting on a jar so that it wouldn't... at home.

[Interruption]

GK: [Holding up a photograph] This is a picture of me in that ceremonial gown. I would say maybe, I think I must be nine years old in this one, and I think we always felt like it was really something special to be able to wear this and be in the ceremony because you know, living in Fort Lupton and being with everyone, it was just a normal, normal life. But then when we got to do something like this, it just made it more special, very special, I think. So I remember this.

This is one of my favorite pictures. This is me, this is 1934, so I guess I'm four years old, it's dated 1934. This is me with socks that need to be pulled up, I think they were always telling me to pull up my socks, and this is my sister Grace and my sister Evelyn, and they look so much older than they really are, I'm just amazed because I think, if I'm four, then my sister Grace is only seven years older, so she's like eleven. And then, then my sister Evelyn would be like... let's see. She would be, like, what, about sixteen, I think. They look much older.

RP: Big sisters.

RP: Yeah. But this is one of my favorite pictures, and I don't know where it came from. I think we enlarged it from something. Okay, this is me and my sister Grace, and this is my sister Evelyn.