Following my trip to Taiwan in January, and the prologue I wrote to turn my 12 year dream of researching my grandmother’s history into something tangible, my sisters decided they would come with me to Owase this summer, the small seaside town that my grandmother grew up in in Southeast Japan, near Osaka. We’ll be heading there in June, right after my younger sister Joyce gets married! Yes, we’re all going on her honeymoon together.
We had no idea how we would get in touch with my grandmother’s relatives (she had 8 brothers and sisters) — my entire extended family was convinced this was an impossible feat. The three of us sisters believed otherwise. We got on a conference call a month ago to divvy us tasks: I would be in charge of finding a translator, Joyce was to speak to my mom about our relatives who might have any information, and Nancy was to find our cousin Casey who lives in Tokyo, to kidnap her to join our adventures.
I found us an amazing place to stay in called the Owase Seaside Hotel. Initially, it was all booked up, but by a stroke of luck, we managed to all get rooms there. It’s very much in the countryside of Japan, and the food there looks home cooked and delicious. Plus there’s a public bath (onsen). Exciting!
I set off to accomplish my task a few weeks ago. Back in March, I had attended a leadership retreat in Mexico. I met an amazing woman (Chris), one of the facilitators of the retreat, who does some work in Tokyo. Following the retreat, I called her up to ask if she could put me in touch with her translator. After some thinking, Chris decided it might be too costly to take someone from Tokyo to Owase, so she did a google search for translators in Owase. She stumbled across the blog of a women from CA teaching English in Owase. When she read the blog, she discovered this woman was her daughter’s freshman roommate at Berkeley. What a strange coincidence!
Chris contacted this woman, who is no longer in Owase, but put me in touch with someone she knows there who speaks English, Daisuke. Unfortunately, Diasuke would not be available on those dates, however, he put us in touch with another woman, Tomi, who is the only registered guide in that town. He also kindly offered to help us do some research before we arrive.
This is where it starts getting exciting.
My grandmother’s maiden name was Mi Yo Tanabe. Last week, Daisuke looked in the phone book to see if there were any Tanabes in Owase. He found one person. He went to this man’s home to see what he could find. It turns out this man, Kyoshi, is the son of one of my grandmother’s younger brother, and the last remaining Tanabe who lives in the town! He is 87 years old. Daisuke showed him one of the pictures I had emailed:
Daisuke confirmed that the woman on the left was my grandmother, or his aunt. He told Daisuke that his grandfather’s name was Yoshihei (芳平) – he’s the old guy in the middle. His grandmother’s name was Tsumi, the older woman in the back (つみ) . These are my great grandparents. Kiyshoi’s father’s (my grandmother’s brother) name is Shinya (眞也). Kiyoshi has put out a call to all our remaining relatives that he has kept in touch with, and has gladly agreed to meet with us when we visit Owase in June.
Meanwhile, Tomi, the translator who will be helping us in June, also kindly decided she would help us with the research prior to our visit. She asked her uncle, who is 92 years old, and who still lives in Owase, if he knew any Tanabes. Tomi found out that her granduncle was married to a Tanabe, whom they believe was one of my grandmother’s sisters. Which means, we are technically related to Tomi!
Thanks Daisuke and Tomi’s generous help, I coudn’t believe we found in just a matter of days. That we had made contact with the last of my grandmother’s relatives in Owase. Or that we are related to Tomi by marriage, who may be able to help us get in touch with other relatives. Each part of this has been a serendipitous coincidence, with each contact providing another piece to the puzzle. I feel like Katchan is guiding us on this journey to unveil the truth.
Sadly, through our research, we discovered all of my grandmother’s siblings have now passed away. If we had done this trip just a few years earlier, we would have been able to meet her last living brother, who died three years ago.
However, each of her siblings had children. Now begins the search to find them.
Katchan 