Interviews

1. Learning how to be a gardener

2. How to be a successful gardener

3. Natural look of Japanese-style gardening

4. Enjoying gardening work

5. Difficulties for gardeners in England

6. Designing a Japanese-style garden in England

7. Important features of Japanese gardens

8. Hiring a helper for gardening route after stroke

9. Incorporating native plants into Japanese-style gardens

10. Japanese-style gardening to keep clients happy

11. Changing demography of gardeners in Southern California

Lou Kitashima

Sansei Gardener

Changing demography of gardeners in Southern California

I am Sansei. I haven’t seen any younger gardeners, Japanese. I see a lot of Hispanics. Sometimes I see in my area the Black gardeners. But I haven’t seen any younger Japanese. I think they’re going into more of a white-collar work. Which is fine.

We have Hispanics who were trained by Japanese that know the gardening business and do quite well. A lot of them have become landscape contractors, state licensed. They’ve learned to use other people that work for them to do the manual work and they go around giving estimates for jobs. I’m sort of kind of happy for them because I’d say 90 percent of the contractor gardeners worked for Japanese before. So I’m sort of proud of our race.

agriculture gardeners gardening generations race Sansei

Date: December 1, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Daniel Lee

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Lou Kitashima is a Sansei gardener from Los Angeles. As a child, he and his family were incarcerated at the Gila River concentration camp in Arizona during World War II. After the war, the family returned to Los Angeles where his father was a gardener. As a young man, he was stationed overseas in England with the Air Force's Strategic Air Command. While in England, he met and married an English woman. After his service was over, he returned to the U.S. with his wife and had three children.

Upon his return, he entered the gardening profession and became known as the "Gardener for the Stars," working for celebrities such as Rod Stewart, Sylvester Stallone, and Ann Margaret. He later returned with his family to England where he started a gardening business. He later returned to the U.S. although his family remained in England.

He resumed his gardening business in Los Angeles and also spent 17 years as the Head Gardener for West LA College before retiring in 2003. He continues to work for a few customers even now to keep active. (July 7, 2007)