Nao Magami

Nao Magami majored in advertising and marketing at California State University, San Jose. He worked in the advertising industry in both Japan and in the U.S. for over 30 years and engaged in works related to Nagano Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the U.S. Soccer World Cup, and more. Since 2010, he has volunteered at Japanese American National Museum. He started growing organic Japanese tea in Napa, California in 2017.

Updated September 2018

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

The Tea of Soul from Aizuwakamatsu Revived After 150 Years

  • By Nao Magami
  • 7 Sep 2018

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 ...

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