Honoring Hideo Nakagaki: Ardenwood's Patterson House History Comes Full Circle
The incredible circumstances that prompted Shuhei Nakagaki to fly to the Bay Area from Tokyo to be the guest presenter at a 2024 reception honoring his great-great grandfather Hideo Nakagaki is quite a tale. All that was known until recently was that Shuhei's relative, Hideo Nakagaki, initially came to California from Japan in the 1880s to study viticulture before returning to Japan. During that time, he befriended Clara Patterson and her family at Ardenwood Farm, possibly working on the farm. Years later, during one of Clara Patterson’s many trips around the world, she visited Hideo and his family in Japan. That's where story of Hideo ended until a web search reconnected his family member with Ardenwood's history.
Hideo's great-great grandson , Shuhei Nakagaki, had been creating a short documentary about Hideo for his 95-year-old grandfather (Hideo’s grandson). Shuhei had almost no documentation or records on his great-great grandfather, as it was lost during World War II. In his search to learn more about Hideo, Shuhei came across the story Hideo’s Lasting Connections to the Patterson Family on the Park District’s website in the fall of 2023. Surprised by this discovery, Shuhei contacted the Park District to find out more information.
Once the Park District was made aware of Shuhei's inquiry, a search began within the District's archives department to find information on Hideo. Researching the archives only turned up a 1987 oral history transcript of Jeanette Korstad and Marilyn Price (both descendants of Clara Patterson), in which Hideo is briefly mentioned. With little other information and a growing list of questions, the archives staff reached out to Patterson House Manager Rena Kiehn, with the City of Fremont Community Services Department. Rena and the Patterson House volunteer docents were very excited to hear about Shuhei’s search, as Hideo's is a story of great interest.
At the same time, and in a startling coincidence, Patterson House volunteer Eileen Juan was traveling to Japan on family business. While there, Eileen was searching for an old address in Yokohama that was written on the back of a 1912 studio photo of Hideo and his family. Unfortunately, that part of Yokohama appeared to have been rebuilt after the war and the building was no longer standing. Fortunately, before Eileen returned home, she and Shuhei were able to connect and meet up in Tokyo. During their visit, Eileen and her husband Kenji helped Shuhei decipher some of the letters Hideo had written that Shuhei had discovered in a UC Santa Cruz archive years before.
After meeting Eileen in Japan, Shuhei decided to come to the Bay Area to conduct more research and visit the Patterson House. He was surprised to learn the historic house was still around. On February 15, 2024, Park District staff and Board Director John Mercurio attended a special reception at Ardenwood Historic Farm in honor of Hideo Nakagaki. The reception was also attended by City of Fremont representatives, Patterson House volunteers, a descendant of Clara Patterson, and others from local historical societies. During the reception, Shuhei played a short clip of his grandfather and gave a presentation about Hideo and his winery in Sagamihara from the information he had gathered. During his visit, the volunteers at the Patterson House took him to see the locations of where the wineries once stood in what is now the Warm Springs district in Fremont, and to the San Francisco waterfront where his relative first came to America.
