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 to The 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 book, Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake: Rice, Water, Earth, was published in May 2022. Another of her books, By the Shore of Lake Michigan, an English-language translation of Japanese tanka poetry written by her grandparents, is forthcoming from UCLA’s Asian American Studies Press. Twitter/Instagram: @nancymatsumoto

Updated August 2022

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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

By Nancy Matsumoto
20 Sep 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

By Nancy Matsumoto
4 Aug 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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Revisiting Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray: An Interview with Robert Nakamura and Karen Ishizuka

By Nancy Matsumoto
6 May 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 …

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JANM Photo Exhibition: Two Views: Photographs by Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank

By Nancy Matsumoto
26 Feb 2016

The 1942 incarceration of people of Japanese descent in America and Canada following the bombing of Pearl Harbor has been portrayed in scholarly histories, works of art, and the cinema. Yet comparisons of the Nikkei experiences in the two neighboring countries have been rare to non-existent. The upcoming exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), Two Views: Photographs of Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank, will provide the context for just such a comparison. Ansel Adams, the widely revered photographer of Yosemite and the West, visited and photographed the Manzanar prison camp a…

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Bon Yagi: Emperor of New York’s Japanese East Village - Part 2

By Nancy Matsumoto
6 Nov 2015

Read Part 1 >> Family is important to Yagi, explains his daughter Sakura, because his own was fractured when he was very young. His father died when he was five, leaving his mother to raise Yagi and his four brothers on her own. Before his life was cut short, Yagi’s father, “had a vision of technology taking over the future” of Japan, recalls Yagi. Anticipating the change, he moved from selling fish by bicycle rickshaw to selling electrical lamps for fishing boats. After the family home was burned down during World War II he had to start over from scratch. He began bu…

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Japanese migrants and their descendants

Nancy Matsumoto

Kizuna: Nikkei Stories from the 2011 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

Kizuna: Nikkei Stories from the 2011 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

Series this author contributes to

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Nikkei Chronicles #11—Itadakimasu 3! Nikkei Food, Family, and Community

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子どもをサーファーにするため渡米 ― 五十嵐ツトムさんとミサさん

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書評：和泉真澄『日系カナダ人の移動と運動―知られざる日本人の越境生活史』

1992年渡米、目標は「アカデミー賞」— 俳優の井上英治さん

Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Tiempos pandémicos: teletrabajo y koden digital

Kizuna 2020: Nikkei Kindness and Solidarity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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第３部：金子正則知事の南米訪問とその主な見解

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Journal Entry #Lesson 3450: "Sharpen Your Pencils!"

Narumi Ogusuku Ubiquitous Nikkei Artist

Herald Salutes – Staff Sergeant Higuchi

The Morgenthau Diaries and FDR's Troubling Views of Minorities

Mercedes Luna: Thriving Within Her Rich Heritage - Part 2

Mercedes Luna: Thriving Within Her Rich Heritage - Part 1

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Bay Area Man Recalls Career Exploring World for Energy in Exotic Places

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