日系 Nikkei Ancestry

Kanaye Nagaswa may not have founded the winery, but he was the one who made the wine and the winery what it was.  Nagasawa and four other members later purchased the winery from Harris in 1900. Their were lots of Japanese Issei who farmed lots of farms in California, and many of them where in charge of it’s operation and managment, even if their was another landowner during those day’s and even later.

This is a great story, and their are other stories of rice farmers as well, many lost their land when it was confiscated during WWII, and had to fight to get it back or even buy it back.

Does anyone know why Nagasawa changed his name?

Kanaye Nagasawa – DiscoverNikkei.org

The Life of Kanaye Nagasawa Samurai of Kagoshima, Winemaker of Fountaingrove, Santa Rosa, California

February 20, 1852 Birth and Training Hikosuke Isonaga (changed to Kanaye Nagasawa) was born in Kagoshima, Satsuma, Japan. Son of a Samurai, his martial arts training began at 10 years, and he was a skilled warrior by 13. He was a brilliant student with a phenomenal memory.

February 13, 1865 Ordered to England Fifteen students, including Hikosuke, were ordered to go to England by the Daimyo of Satsuma to study Western ways and technology. This was in anticipation of the opening of Japan to westerners when such knowledge would be vital.

February 15, 1865 Awaiting Their Ship The student group went into hiding in Hashima Village. They were fugitives as they were planning to violate the Shogun’s prohibition against going overseas. All assumed new names and anxiously waited two months for their ship.

April 17, 1865 Voyage The ship arrived, and their 65 day voyage began. All arrangements were made by Thomas Berry Glover, a Scot, who was a successful merchant in Nagasaki.

June 21, 1865 Arrival Early in the morning their ship docked at Southampton. In the afternoon they went to London by train and were amazed at the splendid sights.

August 19, 1865 Sent to Scotland At thirteen, Nagasawa was too young to enter the University with the other students. He was sent to Aberdeen, Scotland, to live with the parents of Thomas Glover. There he entered secondary school, and records show that he was a top student.

Summer 1867 Funds Decreased In anticipation of the overthrow of the Shogunate, Satsuma increased its armament expenditures. Funds for the students decreased, and their economic situation was tenuous. All but six returned to Kagoshima.

August 1867 Thomas Lake Harris The students met Thomas Lake Harris, leader of the Brotherhood of the New Life cult in the USA. He offered them continued education in exchange for labor in his New York colony. Nagasawa and his fellow students accepted and crossed the Atlantic with Harris.

October 14, 1867 Meiji Restoration Secret orders were given by the Emperor to the Daimyo of Satsuma and Choshu to overthrow the Shogunate. The Meiji Restoration began. Emperor Meiji ascended the throne in 1868 and ruled until his death in 1912.

1867 – 1875 Brockton, New York Harris took the students to the Brotherhood’s colony in Brocton. The vineyards were a classroom for young Nagasawa, and he learned viticulture from an expert. In 1868 all but Nagasawa returned to Kagoshima for patriotic reasons.

July 1875 Fountaingrove Harris, Nagasawa and three others arrived in Santa Rosa seeking a new site for the colony. Four hundred acres north of Santa Rosa were purchased for $50 an acre. Construction began immediately on the Fountaingrove Ranch buildings. Later more acreage was added. [read more]

日系 Nikkei T-Shirt by okawastudios

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The state celebrated the 125th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Hawaii at Iolani Palace on 6/05/2010.

Jake Shimabukuro playing his new song for the veterans of Go For Broke at the the 125th Anniversary of Kanyaku Imin honoring all American’s of Japanese Ancestry and WWII Veterans at the Iolani Palace June 5, 2010.

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Arizona’s new law targeting immigrants, and now their law targeting Ethnic studies alleging that it’s teaching the kids to hate is to me racist.

They get the laws on the books because the northern European settlers think their are to many Mexican’s in Arizona, and these people don’t realize Arizona was Mexican Territory not to long ago. Why wouldn’t their be a lot of Mexican’s in these parts? Their dumbfounded because they think America is a northern European country set up for them [ see kkk ]. It might appear that way if they stay in their own little community from days on end, and not venture out to learn something new, maybe they need to take an Ethnic studies course instead of learning nothing but European studies.

BTW, if Arizona plans on banning Ethnic studies related to Mexican-American, Native-American or Asian-American for that matter, then they should ban the European studies courses as well.  That most certainly would leave everyone ignorant of the facts, and then the KKK might be able to gain advances in their membership because more and more senators would be uneducated on facts and create bills like these that target Mexican American and Native American people in favor of northern European settlers.

People have a right to know their history, history of their ancestry and where it was they came from, and I mean all people, not just the northern European-American’s, and they have a right know how the country came about. You just can’t leave out facts that California, Arizona, New Mexico and other states not to long ago where Mexican Territory. It’s history, and all people should be able to embrace it, it’s not teaching people to hate, it’s teaching the facts about history. History, both good and the bad of it should be told, so that the mistakes that happened then do not happen again.

What’s next? Will California follow Arizona and ban the teachings that take place on how Japanese-American’s where removed from their homes and taken to concentration camps? Will this happen again, and again because people don’t know that it was wrong, if they ban these types of historical teachings? If these histories are not taught then who will fight to keep them from happening again?

I saw a news segment from a Arizona news station, and there was this, what appeared to be a northern European American guy belittling some Asian people because they didn’t speak English with out their Asian accent. Interesting since their are a lot of American’s who speak English with their strong northern European accents, but no body say’s anything about them. They every one else, yet they adopt everything that is theirs, even the American English language is filled with foreign adopted words. People have a right to speak other languages, and why not? We are living in a global society, and it was these same types of people who pushed for it, so they could sell their goods to other countries, yet they don’t want these same people here visiting or working. How can America have a closed off society, when it was the American’s who forced Japan to open theirs and forced them to change, not to long ago? All this looks very hypocritical!

Many northern Europeans don’t want to do work that the Mexican’s who come here to work do. I remember my father telling me he couldn’t hire white people because they didn’t want to do the work, so he was left with hiring Mexican’s who wanted to work, and this was more than 30 years ago.

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This exhibit has already taken place, but the artist is looking for exhibitors in the US.  It’s a scroll painted over a period of about 14 years by a Japanese artist Rakushi Hojo, and depicts the Japanese American history of Hawaii and the mainland.

Interested in Japanese-American heritage? See the amazing scrolls in Yokohama on June 5.
日系移民歴史にご興味? 横浜文化体育会館にて６月５日(金)一日のみの展示会が開催されます。お一人の夢はカタチにする１４年間かかった作品です。是非、お立ち寄りください

The World’s Longest Picture Scroll depicting Japanese American History on Exhibit in Yokohama, Japan – Free-Press-Release.com

United States of America (Press Release) May 5, 2009 — Japanese artist seeks exhibitors in the U.S. to exhibit the world’s longest picture scroll , which will be on exhibit for the first time to the public on June 5, 2009, at Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan as a part of 150th Anniversary of the Port of Yokohama.

The scroll, painted on specialized local “Washi (Japanese)” papers, is 34-volume, 620-meter long with 1069 frames containing 120,000 people, with scenes spanning from the 13th Century to present.

For contact information please see link.

[read more about the world's longest scroll ]

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