Sono kami no okuni no tomodochi toridori ni sugata ukabinu yuki furu wo mite
From my homeland
blessed by the gods
images of dear friends
float in turn into my mind
as I watch the falling snow.
Sugoshi hi no omoidebanashi natsukashisa subete wa yoroshi emaki narikeri
As she speaks
of memories from the days
she spent in Japan,
the nostalgia enchants
like a scroll painting.
See also by Kane Maida:
A Message From the Heart: Six Tanforan Poems
My Body Is Not My Body: Four Tanforan Poems
A Place So Far Removed: Three Tanforan Poems
About the contributor: Kane Maida (1898-1961) was born in Wakayama Prefecture in 1898. Kane’s father Kumakichi and brother Eichi started the Maida Nursery on Wall Ave. in Richmond, California in the early 1900s. Kane and her mother, Matsue, joined them around 1904. Kane married Torayoshi Muraki (who took the Maida name) in 1918, and they had three daughters. When the War began, the family was running three nurseries in Richmond. The entire family was transferred to Tanforan in May of 1942. They were then incarcerated at Topaz from September 1943 to July 1945. When they returned to Richmond after the War, the house and nurseries were in terrible condition, so everything had to be rebuilt. Kane passed away in 1961. Throughout the period of incarceration, Kane wrote poetry, all written in an ancient poetic Japanese form called tanka. We are honored that Ken Tokuno, Kane’s grandson, shared her poetry with us.
© 2025, Kenneth Tokuno. All rights reserved.
Transcriptions and translations by Robert Huey PhD, Professor Emeritus, East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Hawai`i at Manoa