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Nikkei Chronicles #7 — Nikkei Roots: Digging into Our Cultural Heritage
The Tea of Soul from Aizuwakamatsu Revived After 150 Years
History of Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm
About 150 years ago in 1869, the first group of approximately 22 immigrants to the U.S. mainland arrived in Gold Hill, California, after Aizuwakamatsu lost the Boshin Civil War. (The first immigrants to Hawaii arrived in 1868.) This group was the first to come from Aizuwakamatsu, led by a Prussian named John Schnell, seeking a new land in America.
With his Japanese name Buhei Hiramatsu, John Schnell was a merchant who sold weapons to Aizuwakamatsu Domain, and he had planned to make a living by making tea and silk in a place ...
