<Begin Segment 5>

MK: Did you start the rice planting in June?

RM: Yes, yes. Rice planting was done by women. Everyone helped each other in the entire neighborhood.

MK: You did some weeding in July, didn't you?

RM: Three times in those days. Silkworms spin and make cocoons three times until September. That was such a vibrant industry then, but I don't know why it's not there anymore. Apple orchards have replaced fields. Apples are everywhere now. The growers don't send their apples to stores like they do in this country. They have their own clients. They box up the products and send them out to the clients, and we used to have a lot of boxes piled up in our big room. I noticed a big difference last time I was there. Very different from what it was like when I was a child.

MK: Were you very busy during the rice harvesting season?

RM: Yes, yes. We helped each other, but we also had outside helpers in Japan. Hired hands came over and helped. We were very busy. We had to prepare lunch and bring it over to feed the field workers because they were hungry. It was a busy season but also a rewarding season as we were harvesting rice.

MK: Do silkworms stop spinning in September?

RM: They spin until September. We sold all the good ones after that. We kept lower quality ones that were somewhat dirty, thread it into silk, and sold the silk or kept it for our own kimono. Everyone knew how to weave. We did it in the winter, and it was just ordinary silk for the family. We asked professional weavers to create fancier fabric.

MK: Do you remember the Three Five and Seven Celebration [the gala day for boys of three and five and girls of three and seven]?

RM: Yes?

MK: Three Five and Seven Celebration.

RM: I never heard of it. I heard they celebrate the day now in the countryside, but we didn't do it.

MK: Nagano Prefecture is...

RM: Yes.

MK: ...well-known for its soba noodles.

RM: Yes, that's right. [Laughs] I remember we were looking forward to having soba noodles after visiting the Zenko Temple. We made some at home too. We pound grain with chaff dropping all over. We stuffed them in pillows. We had box pillows, but they were for brides. We all used "priest pillows" filled with buckwheat chaff.

MK: Buckwheat chaff pillows.

RM: [Laughs] That is what we did there.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.