Nancy Matsumoto

nmatsumoto

Nancy Matsumoto is a freelance writer and editor who covers agroecology, food and drink, the arts, and Japanese and Japanese American culture. She has been a contributor toThe Wall Street Journal, Time, People, The Toronto Globe and Mail, Civil Eats, NPR’s The Salt, TheAtlantic.com and the online Densho Encyclopedia of the Japanese American Incarceration, among other publications. Her two forthcoming books are: Rice, Water, Earth, about artisanal Japanese sake from Tuttle, and By the Shore of Lake Michigan, an English-language translation of Japanese tanka poetry written by her grandparents, from UCLA’s Asian American Studies Press. You can follow her blog “Rice, Water, Earth: Notes on Sake” here.

Twitter/Instagram: @nancymatsumoto

Updated April 2021

food en

Challenging Times at British Columbia's YK3 Brewery

Por Nancy Matsumoto
7 Mai 2021

In February of 2018, I visited YK3, a small sake brewery in Victoria, British Columbia headed by veteran toji (master brewer) Yoshiaki Kasugai. He is the creator of a line of sake called Yu (悠), a dreamy name that can mean “quiet” or “calm,” but also “far off,” or “boundless.” The brewery is in fact far off the beaten path, due south of downtown Vancouver, close to where the Fraser River empties into the Strait of Georgia. Housed in a non-descript industrial mini-mall, it seemed to take a long time to get there in traffic from my Vancouver hot…

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culture en

Nikkei Chronicles #7—Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage

Pictures and Poetry: Deepening the Connection to my Japanese Roots

Por Nancy Matsumoto
26 Out 2018

Growing up Sansei in my part of California’s San Gabriel Valley meant you didn’t have to work very hard to stay connected to your Nikkei roots—they were all around you. Every family that lived on our South San Gabriel street was Japanese American. We shared Japanese food, holidays, and a mania for gift giving. Our most exotic neighbors were from Okinawa, which as a child I took to be a country separate from Japan. Our local Issei “fish man” would come by weekly his truck to sell the neighborhood moms sashimi-grade tuna and fresh tofu, and our favorite Botan ricec…

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Kizuna: Nikkei Stories from the 2011 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

In Minamisanriku, Surveying the Aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

Por Nancy Matsumoto
20 Set 2016

On my last day in Minamisanriku, a small group of us from World in Tohoku signed up for a tour of the town’s downtown coastal area, which was decimated by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Until then we had been immersed in brainstorming ways to grow the organizations of a group of dedicated and inspiring social entrepreneurs. They were so positive, and so alive that it was hard to viscerally grasp the scope of the natural disaster that had spawned some of their ventures. I wanted to learn more about the effects of the disaster that left nearly 22,000 dead or missing and se…

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Kizuna: Nikkei Stories from the 2011 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

Growing Social Impact Ventures in Tohoku, Japan

Por Nancy Matsumoto
4 Ago 2016

I’ve just returned from an eye-opening odyssey to the Tohoku region of Japan with the non-profit social entrepreneurship organization World in Tohoku (WIT). Through WIT I was able to meet some of the people behind the dynamic social ventures formed in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster and learn how they are trying to improve social, environmental, and living conditions in the region. Located in the northeastern part of Japan, Tohoku is a beautiful region filled with awe-inspiring bays and coastal coves, forests, deep-green mountains and fields, amazin…

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media en

Revisiting Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray: An Interview with Robert Nakamura and Karen Ishizuka

Por Nancy Matsumoto
6 Mai 2016

Fifteen years after its 2001 release, the award-winning documentary film Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray will be screened at the Japanese American National Museum on May 14. A restrained, sensitive depiction of Miyatake as a major contributor to the vital Japanese American arts scene before World War II and the effect that the war had on his life and art, the film was called “eloquent and deeply moving” by The Los Angeles Times. Director Robert Nakamura and producer Karen Ishizuka look back on the making of the film and share their thoughts about the famous photographer …