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RB: For the purpose of the recording, my name is Rob Buscher, we are recording on Monday, May 15, 2023. Can you please state your name for the camera?

LR: Sure, my name is Lucas Rotman.

RB: And what generation would you describe yourself as?

LR: I would be Yonsei.

RB: Great. Right, so as I mentioned, we're gonna jump back into some of the biographical stuff later, but at this point, I'd love to actually drill down into what you remember from your time working at Shofuso?

LR: Working at Shofuso, yeah.

RB: And maybe start by sharing how were you first introduced to Shofuso?

LR: Oh, that was my grandma, Louise Maehara, who was involved with the Japanese House and Garden for, pretty much for her whole life. And you know, it was always a place that was spoken of with great reverence. It always had a mythology for me, you know what I mean? I didn't know very much about the history of it, but it just came up in conversation so much and I just saw photographs and I got to visit it sometimes, so it just held a place of magic within me. So I always... it was always a place that was on my radar, and it was always a place that was almost otherworldly to me. So when my grandma at one point was very concerned about my real big disconnect with anything Japanese, and I grew up in a neighborhood that was mostly African American. I wasn't... I didn't experience, other than when I started going to Yellow Seeds with Mom, I started being around more Asian people, but I wasn't around any Japanese people. The Asians that I was around were mostly Chinese, the kids I went to school with and things like that. So I didn't have very much Japanese culture in my life, so I think it was important for Grandma that I have that experience. And I really think that it was Grandma who's sort of like, finagled me, because I didn't have any skills that would, you guys probably have. I didn't have any knowledge of Japanese culture or architecture or anything like that, or even language knowledge. So I'm sure it was just pure nepotism. [Laughs] But I have such fond memories of working there, and of my time spent, I must have spent maybe three or four different seasons working as a guide there. And at the time, the pay was pretty good for that kind of a job, so it was actually a well-paid summer, spring/summer kind of gig that just worked really well. And there were always people from all over the world coming there, and beautiful women who you would get to meet and talk to, and it was just a beautiful space. But I think I remember most was the women, the Japanese women like Michiko who would, who just kind of took care of me and took me under their wing, and they were Japanese women who were from Japan, they mostly married, I think most of them were married to American husbands, and they just were, so they were very knowledgeable about Japanese culture and tea ceremony and about the house and its history. And so they took it upon themselves to attempt to educate me in a more grounded awareness of the house, and the house's history in the context of Japanese culture.

I remember also a young woman who was a student, she was a Japanese student from, I can't remember where, but her name was Junko, and she also was, it was her mission to get me to behave more Japanese-like. So when I was not using my chopsticks right, Junko would be sort of like, on my case about how I wasn't using it appropriately. Or if I was wearing my happi coat wrong or tied wrong or something, she would always correct me. It was like an annoying older sister. [Laughs] I remember yelling at her, "Leave me alone, leave me alone!" But it was, all came from a place of love, and I always loved that.

And I remember, it was also the first time I really got a chance to work with kids. That was one of the things that a lot of the other guys didn't enjoy doing so much, and it was the first opportunity that I got to work with large groups of schoolchildren. And up to that point, I hadn't really done anything, I hadn't worked with kids at all, and so it was my first opportunity, and I would always volunteer to do the young kids, when everybody else was like, "Lucas will take it." [Laughs] And I actually found that I actually had a facility for talking to young kids. I actually think that Japanese House and Garden also helped me to develop what would become my career in working with children, because that's where I first started doing it.

RB: That's an amazing takeaway, to be able to find the passion of yours from that.

LR: Yeah, for sure.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.