by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Another artifact displayed at the Homestead’s booth during last Saturday’s 5th Annual Nikkei Festival in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles was a blotter issued by the Mission Nursery in San Gabriel, an enterprise run for nearly two decades by Waichi (Fred) Yoshimura (1895-1976) until he and his family were incarcerated in concentration camps during World War II, after which he operated the San Gabriel Nursery, which is still in business.
The blotter has a color image of the Dells of The Wisconsin (River), a well-known landmark in the Badger State, though it’s a bit incongruous to have that rendering for a Japanese-owned southern California nursery. In any case, Yoshimura was sure to include, in ornate lettering, that he was a landscape architect—more on that below—while he offered installation of sprinkler systems as well as selling “Ornamental Shrubs, Trees and Roses.” The blotter has a copyright date of 1923, though whether Yoshimura had these made to mark the opening of his business is not known.
We have featured two other Japanese-owned nurseries in this blog, including that of Itsusuke (George) Zaima’s Figueroa Street Nursery and, featuring another ink blotter, the Pico Street Nursery of Joe Yoshida—both of these operated in Los Angeles. Some reference was also made to Japanese nursery growers in a multi-part post here on some history of Montebello, but now we turn our attention to the mission town of San Gabriel and Yoshimura’s entrepreneurship.
He was born in Iwakuni in the Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan, southwest of Hiroshima, and received his high school education before migrating to the United States, with a World War II-era “Alien Registration” document citing the date of 15 January 1916 when Yoshimura landed in San Francisco. The so-called Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, between Japan and the United States, severely curtailed male Japanese immigration to this country, so it is not known under what conditions he was admitted.
When Yoshimura registered for the draft on 5 June 1917, just after America’s entry into World War I, he resided in San Mateo, south of San Francisco, where he did housework. Four years later, though, he was in Alhambra, where he registered a Ford automobile and a 1962 biography corroborates his arrival in our area in 1921. Two years later, he launched his business and it is important to note that the Japanese were banned, by a 1913 state land law, from owning real property, so he had to lease the 10 acres located on the west side of San Gabriel Boulevard, a short distance north of Mission Road.
On 3 March 1924, Yoshimura wedded Hiroshima native Mitoko Naito, who arrived in San Francisco on 7 June 1915 and was a household employee of South Pasadena resident Jonathan S. Dodge, promoter of Richland Farms in Compton, as well as a lawyer, banker, mayor of South Pasadena, a Los Angeles County supervisor and long-time owner of Cawston’s Ostrich Farm. The Yoshimuras had four children: Hayao (Tony), Raymond, Florence and Margie.
The 1924 Alhambra City Directory (the Temple family resided in that city for several years not long before prior to relocating to the Homestead) lists Fred Yoshimura (it is unclear when he adopted the first name) as owner of the Mission Nursery Company at 735 S. San Gabriel. The earliest located newspaper advertisement is from 12 December number of the Los Angeles Times, in which it is very simply stated that Fred was a “Landscaping Specialist” who offered free estimates and plans. Mitoko handled flower arranging and this became an important part of the enterprise.
The first media attention found is from the 7 February 1926 edition of that paper, which briefly summarized the proceedings of the California Fruit Show, held in Alhambra from 21 to 31 January, calling it “one of the most colorful events of its kind ever held in the State” and noting that its purpose was “to display the varied products of the orchards of” California, including citrus, deciduous and subtropical varieties, while almonds and walnuts, as well as a flowers were part of the event. Among five prize winners for displays was Mission Nursery, which “was awarded first prize for feature display by nurserymen” and a photo of the exhibit was included.
Advertisements from this period of 1926 and 1927 include the same phone number as on the blotter, so it may be that this promotional piece was created once Yoshimura garnered more public attention because of such honors as the prize display at the fruit show. This recognition may well have led to more landscape architecture work, as well, such as noted by the South Pasadena Foothill Review of 14 September 1928, which covered the completion of the Willard Apartments on Fremont Avenue (the edifice is still with us) and observed that “the landscaping as done by the Mission Nursery of San Gabriel,” with Yoshimura took out a card, one of nine, by contractors and the Frank Meline Realty Company, informing readers that he did the landscaping and sprinkler system.
At the end of 1928, Mission Nursery took part in a Christmas holiday charitable program of note, as reported by the Pasadena Star-News of 18 December, as “members of the Alhambra Rotary Club are making plans to bring joy on Christmas to unfortunate persons, and have erected a Christmas tree at the corner of Garfield avenue and Main street, to serve as a depository for Christmas gifts donated to the Rotary Club Christmas stocking drive.” The account continued,
The tree was furnished and put in place by the Mission Nursery, and is to be decorated and lighted this evening. The intention is to give all residents a chance to assist in spreading the Yule cheer, by leaving contributions of any sort at the tree. Such gifts will be distributed Christmas morning by members of the Rotary Club.
As the Roaring Twenties came to an end and as the Great Depression dawned, Yoshimura and Mission Nursery became involved in a miniature golf craze that swept the country (perhaps not unlike today’s pickleball mania). Notably, a trio of these courses reflected ethnic diversity among its proprietors.
The Historic South-Central section of Los Angeles was long the nexus of the Angel City’s African-American population, with Central Avenue the nerve center of the community. On that vital thoroughfare at 49th Street was established the Black-owned Apex Golf Course, managed by Curtis W. Carpentier, opened on 26 July 1930. The 18-hole, par 44 course was advertised in the California Eagle, long the source of news for the metropolis’ African-American residents and readers were invited to “Come—Play and Enjoy Yourself on the Largest, Most Beautiful and Best 18 Hole Miniature Golf Course in Southern California.”
The opening day included a band concert, appearances of stage and film stats, and the master of ceremonies was “Sunshine Sammy,” born Ernest F. Morrison in 1912 and who was an original member of the Our Gang (the Little Rascals to later generations) troupe of child actors and later part of the East Side Kids group of actors during the later 1930s. Hosts were derived from ten Black community organizations, including an American Legion post, while among nine contractors credit was Mission Nursery. The Apex, however, was short-lived, not an uncommon condition for such fads.
In Boyle Heights, which had a large Japanese population (hence the Nikkei Festival of last weekend), an “Oriental Golf Course,” managed by James Yoshida, was laid out on East First Street just west of Evergreen Cemetery and the Los Angeles Record of 13 August 1930 featured an article by Peggy Ballard.
She observed that “the Nipponese touch entered the field of miniature golf courses today with the opening” of the enterprise and she added that “the ‘putt-putters’ who arrived to tap the balls about the course found themselves in an atmosphere similar to that of the land of the rising sun.” Moreover, Ballard recorded that “here there were Japanese players, Chinese golfers, some colored ones,” the area near the cemetery was home to many Black residents, “and others of other nationalities.”
The journalist went on to state that “the bright arcs [lights] that shine over the course are American. But by their sides there are hundreds of Japanese lanterns glowing.” Next, Ballard remarked that,
Designed by Japanese [almost certainly Yoshimura], workers from the Mission Nursery have transformed what was once an ordinary vacant lot into a charming replica of a Japanese garden.
Here the golfers walk upon circling paths that follow various trails over tiny sloping bridges built in the favored Japanese style . . .
Models of Japanese temples, Japanese tea-houses and vari-colored Japanese houses are there to intrigue the golfer.
At the rear, the putting enthusiasts look upon a painted background. It isn’t a billboard or an advertisement, either.
Instead it’s a scene in Japan with Mount Fujiyama lifting its snowy top over the horizon.
It does not appear that the Oriental Golf Garden, as it was called in some advertising, including in the Spanish-language newspaper, La Opinión, survived all that long and the site has been the location of the Tenrikyo Church since 1934.
Lastly, in Altadena, on Lake Avenue just south of Mendocino Avenue, there was the Fujiyama Golf Gardens, established by Frank J. Bessolo, the son of Italian immigrants and who was also the stepfather of George Reeves, famous for playing Superman on television in the 1950s. Bessolo was a Pasadena bank auditor and likely used that experience to get a business loan for this project.
Its opening was 14 October 1930 with the Pasadena Post of that day recording that there’d be another ethnic element, “music by a Hawaiian stringed orchestra,” while the 18-hole course, said to be ideal, “promises good games for the people who have come to love this form of outdoor sport.” The site was on a slight slope and the paper noted that “the lawns, sowed some time ago, have come up with a good stand of grass, and the plants add to the garden effect.”
A replica of Mount Fuji included dual streams emanating from it and running through the course, which was described as “entirely oriental in its atmosphere and surroundings.” Notably, the tea house meals included “Chinese dishes of all kinds, including chop suey,” which has often been said to be a Chinese-American concoction, though, apparently, there are Chinese origins going back centuries. Yet, the Japanese-themed attraction also offered “hot toasted sandwiches, chili beans . . . [and] Texas tamales,” as well as steak dinners in a glass-enclosed pagoda.
Advertising for the special section was Mission Nursery, promoting its “planting and landscaping of Fuji-Yama Golf Gardens,” as well as “Landscape Architects, Sprinkler Systems, Rock Gardens, Lily Ponds, Trees and Shrubs.” A trio of accompanying photographs show how the “ORIENTAL MOTIF IS UTILIZED ON NEW FUJI-YAMA GOLF LINKS,” much of this done by Fred Knospe of The Sunset Rustic Cement Works of Pasadena. A brief feature commented that,
One of the first impressions of the visitor to the Fuji-Yama Golf Gardens and Tea House will be the completeness of the landscape gardening. The lawns are all up and the grass is in good shape. All the srubbery [sic] is in and the plants are blooming in profusion.
The work is that of the Mission nursery, landscape architects, located at 735 San Gabriel boulevard in San Gabriel, where their gardens cover a good many acres of ground. Fred Yoshimura is the head of the nursery.
Like its contemporaries in Boyle Heights and South-Central Los Angeles, though, the Fuji-Yama did not last long. Yet, Mission Nursery continued operation through the dire days of the Depression and it won accolades at floral fairs and garden shows in the San Gabriel Valley and took part, with other Japanese residents, in San Gabriel’s contribution of a float in the 1937 Tournament of Roses parade. The enterprise also provided landscaping for residential tracts in such cities as Pasadena and San Marino.
The 7 December 1941 attack by Japanese forces on the American military installations at Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i, of course, led to the executive order by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that sent many thousands of Japanese-Americans to concentration camps throughout the West. Fred Yoshimura was arrested and taken to several locations, including at Tuna Canyon in Tujunga, the Tulare Assembly Center in the southern San Joaquin Valley and an immigration camp at Santa Fé, New Mexico.
His wife briefly continued operating Mission Nursery, though the last located ad for it was early in March 1942, but, on the 23rd, Mitoko and the four Yoshimura children were sent to the Gila River Camp southeast of Phoenix. In mid-May 1944, Hayao (Tony), the eldest son, joined the Army and served five months. Mitoko, Florence and Maggie were released on 29 January 1945 and Raymond left a few days later, while Fred was the last to leave, this on 9 February. Notably, Fred and Mitoko managed the growing of plants and the flower shop at Gila River with some government compensation.
As noted in our post about the book Japanese in America, its author E. Manchester Boddy, long the publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News and owner of the Rancho del Descanso, now Descanso Gardens, in La Cañada-Flintridge, bought the Mission Nursery from the Yoshimura family and paid a fair price for it, operating the business for the rest of the war years. When the Yoshimura returned home, they opened a new establishment across the street from their previous one and called it San Gabriel Nursery, now over 80 years in operation.
Fred became a member of the San Gabriel Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau, the California Nurserymen’s Association and the Southern California Flower Growers’ Association, serving as the latter’s vice-president. He also was on the board of directors of the Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles and was a well-respected member of greater Los Angeles’ Japanese-American community. He died at the end of November 1976, some sixty years after migrating from Japan and over a half-century since he founded Mission Nursery. Mitoko passed away in mid-January 1990.
As for San Gabriel Nursery, it once had a Los Angeles nursery and a growing and greenhouse property in Rosemead just north of the 60 Freeway, while downsizing a little over a decade ago including reducing operations at San Gabriel to two acres for the nursery, garden center and florist shop that is still owned and run by the Yoshimura’s descendants, who can be proud of the more than a century of history behind their business.