Interviews

1. Growing up in a Japanese American family

2. The reason for coming to Japan

3. Sudden acceptance in Japanese society

4. Tracing my family crest

5. Disadvantages of looking Japanese

6. Ring name: "Yamato Damashi"

7. I’m American, but my home is Japan

8. Citizenship and identity

Enson Inoue

(b. 1967) Hawai`i-born professional fighter in Japan

Tracing my family crest

I’ve already traced back to the city that I was from, or my roots were from. I’ve found the kamon, which is this. This is the kamon, the Inoue Hiroshima kamon. This was hard to find. I went into the kamon book, which is Inoue family crest book. I looked up Inoue, and there were hundreds of Inoues. Every family has their own mark. And so I said, okay, I had to call my grandfather. He found out he was from Hiroshima. I went into the Hiroshima Inoue, and then I had 30 or 40 of them. I was about to give up. I was thinking, I’m just going to choose the nicest one—no one would ever know—and just tattoo it on my body. And then it so happened that my father called me one day and said that there was a mon, a family crest, up at his mother’s place, the Inoue house. So I had them take a picture, send it to me. And we found exactly which one it was. So yeah, I went down enough that far to find out what city I’m from, Hiroshima, and my family crest.

families Finding Home (film)

Date: October 14, 2003

Location: Saitama, Japan

Interviewer: Art Nomura

Contributed by: Art Nomura, Finding Home.

Interviewee Bio

Enson Inoue was born and raised in Hawai`i and attended college there for 3 years studying psychology. At age 23, he went to Japan to play racquetball in a two-week tournament without any intention of living there. He won the tournament and then stayed for 3 months to give racquetball seminars. Thereafter, he continued to live in Japan, intending to return to Hawai`i in a year. Enson, however, decided to stay for still another year, teaching English and running his brother’s racquetball company in Japan. He then became a boxer and gave up racquetball. At the time of the interview in Fall 2003, Enson had lived in Japan for thirteen and a half years and had not been back to Hawai`i for six years. Now he is a professional fighter with the ring name “Yamato Damashii (Japanese Spirit or Samurai Spirit).” As for his identity, he feels that although he is an American, his home is Japan. (October 14, 2003)