It was in the fall of 1969 that I visited Seattle from Japan for the first time. I used to work for an international trading firm in Osaka. Since then going ’round the world to Paris, Tokyo, North Africa and other cities looking for the best place to live, work and raise the family, finally, I settled back in Seattle accompanying my wife and two small daughters in 1979.
Since then, I was involved in restaurant business, international trading, consulting work between Japan and US. One and half years ago, I retired from the US company. I was taken care of well for fifteen years. A few months ago, our longtime family friend, Joe Purdy, a fourth generation rancher from Eureka, Montana, sent me a copy of the Daily Interlake, Kalispell’s newspaper of June 13. There was a full page story on a Japanese man named Mokutaro Hori who landed in Seattle in 1898 from Japan. After all the hardships in Montana, he became a prominent business man in Whitefish, Montana, where Western pioneer spirit is kept up to the present day. The article said he was chosen as a “Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.”
This award was given to the people who made a great contribution in pioneering Montana history, such including Western painter Charles Russell; the old Sioux Indian chief who fought against the 7th Cavalry General George Armstrong Custer to destruction at Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull; famous pioneer photographer Everyn Cameron; and the politician and novelist who wrote stories defending Indians, Frank Bird Linderman. Of course, as a Japanese, Hori should be the first.
In the beginning of the 1990s when I was working as a business consultant, my senior used to work for the same trading company in Japan that purchased 600 acres of land in Eureka, Montana, to build up a resort under the theme of coexistence of man and nature. I was directing its project as a representative on the US side. The opening ceremony was attended by the Japanese consulate general of Seattle at that time, Mr. Masaki Saito. We actively created cultural exchange with the local people. The former Japanese ambassadors to the US, Mr. and Mrs. Yoshio Okawara (author of “Dignity of Japan”) visited to make a speech, too.
Talking at a party by chance with a lady, a member of the historical society, Ms. Mary Harris, she asked me to look for the root of Hori in Japan. I wrote an article in Hokubei Hochi (Northwest Post Newspaper) and Nihon Keizai Shinbun (Japan Economic Times) to find out if anybody knew about him. I knew that Hori was born in Oita Prefecture from his death certificate. Governor Morihiko Hiramatsu, who read my story, took the trouble of searching through his education committee. As a result, it was found that Hori was born in Kitsuki City in Meiji 5 (1873). We also found out he had a daughter named Hatsu and her descendants. I had several chances to meet the descendant in Japan during my trips to Japan.
In the first place, Hori, who was born soon after the era changed from the Edo to Meiji period, what made him come to the US? This is only within the scope of my guess. Kitsuki sent from its village quite a few liberal Samurai including Hidenaga Sato of Kitsuki Clan as a member of a mission to the US on board the USS Pawhatan (Katsu Kaishu and Fukuzawa Yukichi traversed the Pacific on board the Kanrinmaru at the same time), together with a Tokugawa Government mission led by Niimi Masaoki to sign a Japan-US Trade Agreement in San Francisco. With the mission, they travelled around the world after that. Returning to Japan, the Kitsuki Clan School Gakushukan learning center was opened and Sato taught about the world. It is said that many Kitsuki people were stimulated by such teaching and crossed the ocean to the US.
Mokutaro Hori learned business directly from Montana’s prominent and successful business man, Charles Conrad, working as a penniless houseboy. After becoming independent, Hori opened a hotel, restaurant, bakery, ranch and agricultural farm. His beef and vegetables were awarded the Blue Ribbon in a contest and supplied to the dining cars of the Great Northern Railway across the continent.
Aya, Hori’s wife, who married him as a picture bride, warmly welcomed railroad and lumberyard workers living from hand to mouth, from the backdoor of her restaurant. She served hot stews full of her love and humanity. Hori invited Sumo wrestlers from Japan, hosted Japanese fireworks festival and planted Japanese cherry trees.
When Foreign Minister Jutaro Komura went to see President Roosevelt, he once stayed at Hori’s Hotel in Whitefish. Hori passed away in 1931 at age 58 from stomach cancer. His estate was donated to Whitefish City, Police Stations, the Chamber of Commerce, etc. Even now, at the entrance of Whitefish City Hall, a gold plaque is decorated on the wall with appreciation for his contribution to the community.
The founder of Sony Corporation, Akio Morita, when he made a speech at the Mike Mansfield Center of University of Montana, said, “Sony’s motto is THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL.” He also said that he picked this motto from the hint of Coca Cola philosophy which has become a world class enterprise. What is great about Hori, however, is that almost one hundred years ago, without knowing such a purpose, he had already practiced the same motto in a small American country town.
Assuming this fact is a legacy Hori left to us, my wish is to promote exchange of culture, arts, academic studies, and more between the youth of Oita and Montana. This is my homework left to do after my retirement. I would like to use my energy for the realization of my dream.
*This article was originally published in the North American Post on September 1, 2010.
© 2010 Sam Takahashi
