A Tailor in Oakland

Kishiro Yamashita portrait. Link to item in archive.
Collection: Tomi and Kishiro Photo Album Pre-War

Kishiro Yamashita was a tailor in Oakland in the 1900s through the 1920s. He was born in rural Naegi, Japan, to a land-owning family with a brewery business. He was the fourth of eight children. In 1897, at the age of 23, Kishiro immigrated to the United States and worked as a domestic worker in a doctor's household in Alameda, California. He left for New York City to learn tailoring, attending Mitchell Cutting and Tailoring School, and returned to the West Coast, settling in Oakland, California where he set up a tailoring business, called Yokohama Tailor Co. Browse a collection of 70 images of Kishiro and his family here.

What was the social climate of his life like in Oakland and how did he come to organize his own shop? Historical accounts of Asian immigrants to the U.S. during this period describe the influx of Asian workers in the railroad, cannery, sugar plantation and farming industries and the concomittant rise of anti-Asian sentiment on the West Coast of the United States (See Densho Project). Kishiro's profession sets him apart from the typical occuations of hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers. His work, tailoring primarily for the Japanese community, demonstrates that the Japanese in California had their own communities. Every farmer needed a suit for a wedding or a funeral.

Kishiro at far left in his tailor shop.
This photo of his tailor shop shows his business partners or possibly his employees in the business. There are coats hanging up that may be waiting for customers to pick them up. There is a hose dangling down that may have been used to treat the fabrics. Two men are seated, with one sitting before his sewing machine. Kishiro stands at far left with a measuring tape around his neck standing before a broad table. The man seated to the right is leaning his head against a propped up arm. Kishiro's reflection appears on the mirror facing him. It would seem like this is a posed photo of the business in operation, with Kishiro possibly showing his measuring tape as a symbol of his trade.

Kishiro lived long enough to see the birth of his first grandchild, since he died in 1931 at the age of 58. Kishiro died amidst the hard times of the Great Depression. Some of his kids would later say that the economic depression killed him. He never lived to see his family incarcerated or stripped of their home ownership during the Second World War. Japanese American wartime incarceration succeeded his death by a decade. His life as an Issei (Japanese first generation immigrant) tells the story of the years before World War II. He ended his life in debt, leaving behind photos of happier moments, picnics and outings with his wife and friends. These images portray a dapper immigrant, among his fellow tailor friends, well dressed although perhaps not entirely wealthy.

Looking at the history of Japan and looking at the photos of his family there may shed some light on the context of his family and class background. Unfortunatley, few other sources exist in the family oral history to tell us about what kind of person Kishiro was like, and how he felt about his immigrant life. Despite having a sizeable back story and lineage in Japan, we don’t know much about Kishiro’s day to day life in Oakland. When asked to describe him, one of his son simply said he was “milquetoast,” which might be to say, that his personality was less than exciting. His personality may have been subsumed by Tomi’s personality. Whether to start with him or her to tell the story of the Yamashita Family is a hard one, but we'll start with Kishiro for now.

Nine Generations in Naegi

Naotaro(possibly), Kishiro's eldest brother.	Children of Naotaro.1914.
Buddhist scrolls showing family lineage of Yamashita Family in Naegi, Japan. See the entire scrolls here.	Research in Naegi on Yamashita Family's Buddhist Scrolls.

The Yamashita Clan had been in Naegi, Japan since the 1600s. They were a land-owning family who were given privileges by the lord of the area (the daimyo) including a stipend (fuchi). Kishiro's predecesors in the mid 1700s were privileged family, and some served as a village headmen, collecting taxes, managing water irrigation, providing farm instruction and generally maintaining order. Over six generation's time, the Yamashita family bought up more land, which they rented to tenant rice farmers and their wealth grew. The first son's line inherited the wealth, and by 1818 had built four rice breweries (sakaya). The family also engaged in "loan-shark" activities, charging their share croppers 20 to 30 percent interest loans("Across Ryuku Waters" Ann Dion, 2003).

Kishiro was born in the sixth year of a new government, the Meiji Government-- the year was Meiji 6. Kishiro grew up in a context that diverged from the one that had colored the lives of generations of his ancestors. The pre-modern farming system that governed his region of Naegi was built around a benevolent relationship between the lord who owned the land and peasants who worked the land. The peasants gave their rent to the lord using a portion of the rice harvest. This system was slowly breaking down over the course of the 18th and 19th Centuries, during the period of the Tokugawa Shogunate 1600-1868. Merchants were steadily taking the privileged social position that the samurai class once held in earlier times. Farming peasants were able to sustain themselves through famines and unfortunate growing seasons by having their taxes forgiven. But with the new Meiji system being put in place, they were met by strict and unforgiving government officials. Peasants would lose their relative stability.

The Yamashita family was one that might have gained in the economic restructuring. They were not a samurai family who had seen their wealth and privileged position slowly deteriorate. Despite inheriting wealth, Kishiro’s father, Sadashige would eventually face financial ruin. He was also known as a bad businessman or too generous with his money. Some of his grandchildren speculate that he drank away his fortune. Kishiro left home to find a profession, for his father could not support him.

To See snapshots of Sadashige and Fumi's Family tree at 1905, 1921, and 1941.

To see A Map of Naegi. Year(?)

Fumi, Kishiro's mother. Kishiro had these charcoal drawings commissioned, possibly in the 1900s or 1910s. Sadashige (aka Hikota) died in 1913, and Fumi died in 1920.

Sadashige, Kishiro's father.

This is a portrait of the Kameyama Family which the Yamashita family married into through Kishiro's father's aunt Mine Yamashita (1820-1902). Both families stayed close in touch in Naegi, Japan.

Naegi to Yokohama to Oakland

Kishiro's Tailor Shop, "Yokohama Tailoring Co." Circa 1900.

When Kishiro was 18 years old, the family encouraged him and his brother, Enkichi, to leave Naegi to support themselves independently (Dion 2003). The eldest brother and inheritor of the family's fortune, Kohei, stayed with his father. Kishiro and Enkichi went to Yokohama, where Kishiro started to study to become a doctor, with the financial help of his father. However, the money soon ran out. During this period, Enkichi died suddently of dysentary at age 22.

After this tragic loss, Kishiro made his way to the U.S. He may have seen all of the western clothing in Yokohama, a port where wealthy businessmen from Tokyo would come to get finely tailored suits. He started working at one of those shops after his funding ran dry from his father and apprenticed for two years. There was a growing demand for western suits.

Japan would later aspire towards a western style of military power and colonialism, and engage in war with China. The fashion were tied to the changing times, of modernization as well as a violent national aspiration to become an imperialist power.

Translation of Japanese Banner: California Certified Western Style Tailors Association. Kishiro is in the second row from bottom, fourth from right.

After immigrating to the U.S. and working as a domestic of "schoolboy," Kishiro married Tomi in Tokyo and may have worked as a tailor in a shop in Oakland where he settled with Tomi. In 1906, he traveled to New York City to learn tailoring at the Mitchell School. The Mitchell School was known for recruiting immigrants from around the world. In 1908, the city directory shows that he lived at 509 8th Street. (We are not sure where he lived with his family before 1908 since the earlier city directories did not count Chinese of Japanese immigrants) He settled in Downtown Oakland, at 513 8th Street, living above Yokohoma Tailoring Co. from 1913 to 1918.

Kishiro in middle. Kishiro with his fellow graduates of the Mitchell Tailoring school in New York, 1908.

Kishiro and Tomi with Kimi as a baby.

By 1918, Kishiro was able to move his family to a house a few streets away in Oakland, at 670 19th Street, which also still stands today.

Kishiro remained in the tailoring business until he died in 1932. The building where Kishiro set up his business still stands in Oakland today. There was a sizable Japanese community in Oakland at that time. The infamous earthquake of 1906 which devastated San Francisco (killing around 3,000 people and destroying 80% of the city) also forced a portion of the surviving Japanese community in San Francisco to move. Many joined the Japanese immigrant community in Oakland which was thriving despite complete acceptance by the broader community.

Arnold Genthe's photo of the fires in San Francisco on Sacramento Street following the earthquake of 1906.

More about the earthquake of 1906. By the 1910s, there were dozens of Japanese tailor shops, grocers, laundries, and restaurants in Oakland, serving a Japanese community of 1,500. Who were Kishiro's clients at his tailoring business? He might have traveled to farming areas, to measure Japanese American farmers and send them their suit that they would need for a funeral, wedding, or special occasion. He may have taken in customers at his shop. We don’t know how much English he spoke or if serviced non-Japanese customers.

Iyo shared a bunch of her memories about the tailor shop that her dad, Kishiro, ran along with her mom. Here is an excerpt from this 1995 oral history interview,

Apparently he came to this country with a certain amount of money. His family had been well off at one time. With that money he went to New York to the “Mitchell Cutting School” and received this great big diploma, which I remember as a child. It was in an enormous frame in the tailor shop. That’s one of two things I remember about the shop. The other thing I remember is this great big framed mirror that occupied one wall of the front part of the tailor shop….There were other people who wanted to learn tailoring too, and so he was able to have apprentices to do the sewing. He taught them…Ernie Takahashi’s father was his partner. Of course they had to pool money but somehow they started a business. I have this picture of the tailoring shop. And little by little, by the time I was growing up, it didn’t look like this original picture. The space in the shop was the same, but he added glass showcases to hold the finished clothes. The front door was changed and the shop looked much more fancy. My father had a wonderful roll-top desk.

At first the family must have lived upstairs. It was a two-story building and I don’t think I was born in that place but I do remember growing up in that place. There was a kitchen behind the shop and my mother had to cook for these apprentices. I guess they were all bachelors, you know…And then his apprentices worked a certain number of years there and then they opened up their own shops. That’s how it was in those days. The tailoring—custom tailoring was a good business. Everyone—not just wealthy people- had their clothes made. And the Issei—they all needed a good Sunday suit, for a weeding or funeral. My father had people in the country as customers. He would take a bus and go to the country to get orders. And the other interesting thing was the Greek candy-makers. They were in the candy making business in those early 1900’s and they were his best customers, I recall.

Separate Schools

In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education declared that students of Japanese descent would be separated from white students in public education. One of the parents of the Japanese American children brought a legal case against school segregation based on Article 14 of the U.S. Constitution since his child was an American born citizen.

Kishiro's family was living in Oakland at the time of this event. He and his wife Tomi would soon send their two oldest children to be educated in Japan. What did they make of this controversy? Were they following it closely? How did they experience or think about anti-Asian sentiment? Did they consider Oakland a temporary place to make money for a while before heading home to Japan? Were they starting to think about the possiblity of having their children educated in Oakland? Their five other children would be educated in Oakland public schools in the 1910s and 1920s.

This school segregation case disrupted international relations between the U.S. and Japan and was followed by the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1906 which struck down the segregation and also excluded Japanese laborers from entering the U.S. (To learn more about the response to this school segregation case in national newspapers of the time, read here.) This agreement was never ratified by Congress and was followed by the Immigration Act of 1924.

The handwritten notes above (by Kishiro's grown daughter, Chiz or Chizu) provide details about the legal conflict over racial segregation in public school of Japanese American children. Above left: San Francisco Japanese Language School in 1906. In the 1980s, Chiz married Kiyoshi Togasaki who was the plaintiff in the legal case as a child. At left are handwritten identifications by numbers that a Togasaki sibling made of the children in the photo who were segregated into a Japanese school.

Duty and Debt

While Kishiro was interested in having his children succeed in their education, he also never forgot his duty to his family in Japan, and dutifully sent back $17 every month. The family lived on that monthly sum. Sadashige’s grandchildren remembered this anecdotally, but this remittance was also recorded in a family document that recorded the family history since the 1700s. This document was a Buddhist scroll. When the Meiji Emperor took power, Shinto religion became a state religion, and the family took the their family's Buddhist scrolls into their own possession. One of Kishiro and Tomi’s grandchildren tracked down the Yamashita Family and history in the 1970s and was able to read and photocopy the scrolls. Recorded in the scrolls was the note about the son who had left for America and had sent back the $17 each month.

Kishiro's kids had to pay off his large debts after his death, which likely were accumulating in part from paying for his children's college tuition, in addition to the remittance that he continued to send to Japan. For these remittances, Kishiro was remembered to his family in Japan, to Sadashige’s first son Naotaro and his children, who were contemporaries to his children in America.

Picnics at Palace of Fine Arts

Many of the pictures saved from the early 1900s show Kishiro and Tomi with their Tailor Association friends having picnics and outings to the Palace of Fine Arts and Golden Gate Park, in beautifully tailored suits. These photos provide a glimpse into their lives, and the fun that they had.

They are relaxed and smiling, posing with umbrellas, or showing their kids. A man slouches like a dandy on another man’s shoulder, very aware of his best angles. Tomi laughs and shows her teeth, a rare site in a photograph when she almost always kept her lips closed.

Tomi at second to left, on outing with friends.

Kishiro in front of monument in Golden Gate Park.

The early days are more documented than the depression years, when the money for outings to Golden Gate Park no doubt ran out. One of his sons said, what killed him was the depression. What else do we know of his life up until his death? We don't have letters from him sent back to Japan or a journal he kept.

To see more photos from the Yamashita family's life in Oakland from 1900s and after his death, up until the outbreak of WWII.

Tomi, far left, and Kishiro at second to left with friends in Golden Gate Park.

Kishiro and Tomi, possibly in Golden Gate Park.

The 19th Street House

The 19th Street house was where Kishiro moved his family from the apartment right above his Tailoring shop on 8th Street in Oakland's downtown. It was also the stable housing that the family lived in after his death in 1931 up until 1942. Photographs of the family's children in the 1920s show their close relationship with the house- with kids posed on the front stoop and small front lawn.

Iyo in front of 670 19th Street house. Not sure what year.

At left, Kix in front of 670 19th Street house. At right, Kay, Iyo, Chiz(?) and Kiyo in front of 670 19th Street house. Not sure what year.

Tom in front of 670 19th Street house. Not sure what year.

Tom and friend in front of 670 19th Street house. Circa 1924.

Google Map Street View of 670 19th Street Oakland. Photo taken Aug 2014.