It is with great sadness that I have to say that my dear friend Lucho Iguchi , who wrote articles with the title “Loose Pages,” has left us. Lucho defined himself as a dog-killer, a friend, a dreamy traveler, a fisherman, a tennis player and a lover of songs. In addition to all that, I can assure you that he was a Nikkei at heart and, above all, an excellent and entertaining writer.
Regarding his self-definition of “dogkiller”, I remember that he always said that he lived until he was 8 years old with the Hirano family, in the Barrios Altos, in the district of Lima, and that they decided to send him to the province of Jauja, in the Sierra del Peru, because, as they said, it was such a “dog killer” that they couldn't stand it anymore. He lived in Jauja until he was 20 years old and then returned to the capital.
In relation to his friend feeling, in his “Loose Pages” he unreservedly transmitted the events of his life and appreciated feeling the affection of his friends, whom he always mentioned in the articles he wrote and said: “being a friend I think was the best what I did in my life.” He also said that “it felt like family, they had all that love that they gave me with their friendship” and added that “life is nothing other than meeting again and feeling that the years will always be another step in the memory of my old friends.”
As a dreamy traveler, Lucho said: “each town was typing my life and pointing out that after the bend, another limit was extended based on my vision, on what I wanted to see, hear or simply bring up the terms of a trip. marvelous". He enthusiastically recounted his trip that he had made more than 35 years ago, mentioning his nostalgic memories of his trip to none other than Japan, having received a gift that Matsushita Electric of Peru gave to its best distributors. He took advantage of that trip to visit Hong Kong, Macau and Shuhai in China, which were part of his recurring dreams.
One of the things he was passionate about was sport fishing, which he referred to as “the most effective remedy to relieve the stress of work days.” Lucho said that he had as a refuge a cave located in the La Esmeralda Club in the Santa María spa, where he had gone with his friends for fifteen years in the mornings, afternoons and sometimes at dawn, carrying primus, pots, plates.
They prepared an exquisite sudado with what they had caught, accompanied by their short drink, bread, ham, cheese and a lamp to illuminate the place. He always mentioned his fishing friends, many of whom had already passed away, and said with longing and sadness “their names are a refuge for so many memories and moments of laughter and joy that still live in my memory.” He also recounted his Sundays at the beach and fishing in Pucusana, in the company of his children and nephews.
Lucho was a lover of tennis, a sport to which he felt attracted in his mature age. Apparently it was perhaps an excuse to be with friends who fed his friendly spirit, whom he always mentioned in his “Loose Pages.” He combined tennis with his love of music and singing. He said that waltzes, boleros, tangos and huaynos were combined one afternoon with a singles and doubles match, whose memories live palpitating in the “tie break” of life.
He mentioned that “accompanying sport with the art of singing is a nice message to the new generations. “Tennis nourishes the physical state of the person and singing makes the cloud of tranquility restore us for another day of work.”
I am sure that the many facets that Lucho went through were carried out carrying in his heart that Nikkei feeling that was permanently with him. He remembered that his father had been born in Amakusa, an island near Kumamoto. When he discovered the house where his father had lived in 1986, he found that his family still had it intact. In this regard, he mentioned: “I felt that the shy air of the sea played on my memories and feelings. A whole world of beauty before the immense Pacific Ocean, where Peru and Japan are bathed by its same waters.”
He said with nostalgia that the Japanese arrived in Jauja in 1915 and that their number gradually increased to 300 members of the community between Japanese and Niseis, who managed to establish a solid economic situation. Lucho lamented saying that today practically no descendants of those immigrants who came to the place live in the city of Jauja.
His Nikkei spirit made him worry about those Japanese and their descendants, who were buried in the cemetery of that city. He dedicated himself, in coordination with members of the Peruvian-Japanese Association of Huancayo, to the search and registration of the niches where they lay. Lucho felt that, being a descendant of one of the immigrants who had arrived from distant Japan, he could not ignore the enormous effort they made to give us the tranquility that we enjoy today and he rightly said that “they who only had daily work In their stores and their trades, they remind us that solidarity, honesty, work and respect is, at the bottom of life, that blue sky that will always be watching our dreams.”
Regarding what he wrote, there is no doubt that Lucho had and felt the need to write from a very early age. He confessed that at the age of 72 his children encouraged him to retire and he enjoyed his time doing what he had liked to do most since he was 16, which was writing. His articles with the title “Cerca del Corazón”, as well as his exclusive column on AELU tennis with the title “Set Point Aelucorp”, which were published in Perú Shimpo , have remained as testimonies of these tasks.
Dear Lucho, today I write to you in the midst of your absence, with the certainty that you went to meet those friends, who had also gone to the afterlife. With them you will continue eternally remembering your times as a “dog killer” and you will continue to be as friendly as ever. You will evoke your times as a traveler and dreamer, being above the limits of the trips you always wanted to take.
You will continue to remember the pleasant moments of fishing, like when you patiently waited for that surprise pull of the fish. Your love of tennis, combined with music and songs, will continue to be present in the dreams of your eternal rest. Your Nikkei spirit will continue to be linked to the souls of your ancestors who, like you, have become “ kami ” (God), according to the Shinto religion, and the “loose pages” have flown and flown… and gone with you to heaven. My friend, rest in peace.
© 2023 Carlos Saito Saito
