Densho Digital Archive - Alice E. Sumida Interview (denshovh-salice

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AS: Many things happened, and we finally came to Portland. And my husband said, "Gee, I can't just sit around and wait till I die. I have to be doing something." So he was reading again, and we read about this Japanese koi, nishikigoi, brocaded fish. Now people here call them koi for short. Well, he had contacted the nursery in Japan, so he asked them if they would go to the best koi grower and send us the best parent stock. So they went up to Niigata, Japan, very cold country, northern Japan. They had the best at that time. So they shipped us 37, I think, 37 parent stocks; gold, silver, red and white kohaku sankei; red, white, and black, five, let's see, anyway, six basic varieties of the koi fish, parent stock. And when it arrived in the airport, my husband and I went to the airport to pick it up which was about 2 o'clock in the morning. They called us, but they wouldn't release it until about, we had to wait about four or five hours before they would release it. Finally, they released it. We took it back to the farm. In Woodburn, we had bought a farm that long time ago someone had been growing kingyo, goldfish, which is entirely different from koi. Goldfish grows only so big and just all gold color. And the place had 37 ponds already built, mud ponds, but big faucets like this. You just open the faucet and the water just dashed out. It was ideal for the koi. So we bought the farm. It was just full of weeds, and so we had to fix it before the koi came, and we were all ready for them. But, we received the koi at night. We couldn't see what was what, so we put this variety here. We put the gold in this pond, the silver in this pond, red there, and red, white and black there, each one separately because we wanted to breed them. And we hired a man from Japan where we got the fish to breed these. We had millions of babies, but you have to sort them out. You only keep the good ones with the clear color, with the good shape. All the basic varieties of a good fish you keep, and others, you just throw out. And after a week or two, you sort them out again as they grow. So in the end, you don't have very many fish left. But in those days which was about forty years ago when we introduced this fish here and to most of the country in this country, they didn't know what koi was. They say, "Is it a goldfish?" I said, "No. It's not a goldfish. It's koi." And now today, I think most of the people know what koi is. Many of the Caucasian people are in business, say, "Oh, if Mrs. Sumida could do it, I could do it." So, they all started their own business which is very good, and I'm glad they are enjoying, you know.

MR: When did you buy this koi farm or the farm you turned into a koi farm?

AS: Yes. Let's see, what year was that? We came in, we sold 1961, I think. We came and then we sold the place in '61 and took us a few years. We looked around for a place and found this place in Woodburn. Maybe around '66 we bought the place.

MR: And was that Woodburn, California?

AS: Woodburn in Oregon.

MR: Oregon.

AS: Yeah.

MR: Oh, okay.

AS: Right close to the, big shopping center. I don't know what you'd call a shopping center or what. They built this big area. What do they call that?

MR: It's an outlet mall.

AS: Yes, outlet, right close around there.

MR: And how long did you run that koi farm?

AS: Oh, until my husband got sick, maybe ran for about five or six years, and then he got sick. He had a stroke, and so I had to keep feeding and taking care. Well, maybe about ten years. I kept going, you know. I kept the best I could. And finally, we had to get rid of them. We sold most of it. And we had a farm in Cedar Mill. So my husband was sick, so I hired a man to build six basic ponds quickly. And whatever that was left, we put in there, and I was taking care of them. But it's very hard work. It's a man's work, and so I decided I will not keep them and sold them and donated quite a few to the Japanese Garden when my husband was still alive.