In 1937, Professor Carey D. Miller, the internationally-known nutritionist who established the Home Economics Department at the University of Hawaii, traveled to Japan to meet with colleagues and observe farming and cooking techniques.
Click on the photo below to view all of Miller’s photographs from Japan.
This was likely part of a longer trip which included Korea, where Miller documented the making of kimchi. Those photos were posted here earlier.
My mother, who had been a student of Professor Miller, went to work for her after graduating from UH in 1935, and remained a lifelong friend. When Miller died in 1985, my mother cleared remaining remnants of her papers out of her Manoa home. A few small sheets of paper containing contact prints of photographs from the trip to Japan were among the materials she was able to retrieve.
Most of the photographs were taken at Furudate Village, “near Morioka”, according to a handwritten note.
According to a Google translation of one bit of Shiwa Tourism Information:
In 1889 (Meiji 22), the Meiji Government reorganized the local government system. It established Hizume Town, Furudate Village, Mizuwake Village, Shiwa Village, Akaishi Village, Hikobe Village, Sahinai Village, Akazawa Village, and Nagaoka Village. The present day Shiwa formed on April 1, 1955, when the one town and eight villages merged.
I don’t know anything about the area. Was it affected by the nuclear meltdowns? What does it look like today?
The last several photos in the set are from a visit to the estate of Baron Masuda in Odawara.
Masuda, who died in 1938, was a major Japanese industrialist.
In 1874, Masuda established the Senshu Kaisha trading company in Yokohama with Inoue’s support. In 1876, at the age of 29, Masuda was appointed the president of Mitsui Trading Company (Mitsui Bussan Kaisha) and contributed to the development of the Mitsui zaibatsu . Mitsui quickly became a dominant player in Japanese exports of silk cloth and thread, cotton, coal, and rice, and in the import of industrial products and weaponry.
Masuda negotiated with the Ministry of Industry to acquire ownership of the Miike coal mines at very favorable prices when the government decided to divest itself of industries. This became the subsidiary company, Mitsui Mining Company, in 1889, with Dan Takuma as president. In 1900, he created the Taiwan Sugar Corporation, beginning Mitsui’s expansion into Japanese overseas colonies. By the 1910s, Mitsui had developed into Japan’s largest general trading company, accounting for nearly 20% of Japan’s total trade.
Miller’s photos include several of Masuda himself.
I wonder whether the university has any other letters or papers describing this journey to Japan?
Oh–FYI–the original copies of these photos were donated to the UH library.