"In My Own Words"

A Summary of my new book

I think of Harvest Son as a family portrait taken over generations involving two countries, Japan and America. It begins with a search for stories about my grandparents and ends with my taking over our family farm just south of Fresno, California.

My stories explore the value of work, the cultures of Japan and rural America, and the evolving traditions that create continuity over three generations. To write about family and capture their portrait, I'm forced to grapple with the meaning of home.

Harvest Son begins with pruning vines and lessons about seeing the past and future as I clip and shape an old, bent vine. Later I journey to Japan and struggle to learn a foreign language while I have the face of a native and the tongue of a foreigner. I discover spiritual parallels between the family in California with the Japanese half of the family still on the old rice farm in southern Japan near Kumamoto.

I return to American and work with my father, taking over the farm while starting my family. I'm faced with a long and difficult learning curve as I work 20 acres of peaches, 60 acres of grapes and the challenges of bringing in a raisin crop - all the while faced with the changes of nature.

But I don't farm in isolation and tell stories about working with farm organizations and the Japanese American rural community. I witness the sale of our old Buddhist Temple and the swelling of junk piles on all our farms.

Harvest Son ends with stories about raising family and children on the land. We are honored to work old vineyards my grandmother planted and survive a viscous hail storm that quickly humbles us.

Through stories and photographs about old shovels and pruning shears, I discover that I am "home bound", tied to a place and family history as I struggle to plant my own roots in the land. Here are stories of many sons and daughters who fuse the emotions of many rich harvest with the warmth of family and community working together under a harvest son.

Family memories become ghosts, joining me on farm walks and coming to life with stories.

Hope you enjoy my stories and there are over 25 black and white photographs in the book that also convey a sense of family and a sense of place.

Thanks - Mas

About Harvest Son
(from the publisher's catalog)