“The Tengu Club” Film Premiere Held at NVC Hall
By Chisaki Sato
NAP Intern
On Saturday, August 17, the documentary “The Tengu Club” was premiered at Nisei Veteran’s Committee Memorial Hall. The film drew 115 people, including members of the Tengu Fishing Club; YETI Inc., the company that created the documentary; and Hilary Hutcheson, a person featured in the movie. All those gathered for the screening enjoyed chatting about it at a buffet dinner.
Hilary Hutcheson, an outdoor guide and avid fly fisher from Montana, was inspired by a book about the Tengu Club to look into her own Japanese ancestry. She eventually pulled the team together for the documentary.
What is the Tengu Club?
Local Japanese Americans were well known for their excellent fishing skills. They were so good, in fact, that they were openly shut out from the salmon derbies by the white community.
In November 1937, the Japanese Americans established a fishing club and started fishing competitions. They intentionally chose the time of the year, winter, when nobody else was fishing in those days. Also some of the 22 or so boathouses that lined Elliott Bay in those days gave the Nikkei (Japanese American) fishermen and women access to their rental boats because nobody else would make use of the boats in winter. Membership was about 250 in those days and opened to anyone who loved fishing. However, this version of Tengu Club ended on December 7, 1941.
The Tengu Club awarded winners of its annual winter fishing derby by engraving their names on this plaque. ▶︎
The Tengu Club awarded winners of its annual winter fishing derby by engraving their names on this plaque. ▶︎The Nikkei anglers invented and perfected the fishing method called “mooching.” This technique requires a simple weight and hooks baited with herring. Fishers dropped it to the depth most likely to find fish, then slowly moved the bait up and down to entice them. The Tengu Club still adhere to this fishing method to this day.
The Tengu Club was re-established in November 1946 when the former members, returning from various incarceration camps, reclaimed their once-lost favorite outdoor activity.
Masaru Tahara, who was a member of the Tengu Club for more than 50 years and worked to make sure the club continued, wrote a book called “Tengu — Tales Told by Fishermen and Women of The Tengu Club of Seattle” in 2015 that described the history of the club. The book contains much information on the members, some historic events, photos and a list of notable accomplishments by the club. The book was published with funding by The Kawabe Memorial Foundation and assistance from members of the community.
Tahara said that the 14 notebooks recorded by Jukichi (B.J.) Yoshida were of great help in obtaining valuable information on the members and the results of the derbies. It is quite interesting to note that so many Japanese businesses provided prizes for the derbies, indicating the whole Nikkei community was involved in the Tengu Club’s activities.
Tahara gave all 200 copies of the book to club members and those who helped him in his publishing efforts.
Hilary Hutcheson, who lives in Montana and is Tahara’s cousin’s granddaughter, was inspired by the book. She runs an outdoor guide business, is an accomplished fly fisher and has some experience in producing documentary films. Hutcheson approached Farm League film production company to produce the documentary and YETI to put together the funding.
The theme of the film is that Hilary, as a fourth-generation Japanese American and a mother of two, wanted to know more about her heritage. Tahara’s book somehow triggered her desire to find her identity. In the process of researching, she found out what her family and many Japanese Americans had gone through.
The film took about two years to complete.
This documentary will be shown at the Camden International Film Festival in Camden and Rockland, Maine, in September and at the Flagship Festival in Carbondale, Colorado, in April 2025. It will also be launched on YETI’s YouTube channel at the end of September/early October 2024. The team hopes it can set up a few more in-person screenings of the film.
What is Tengu?
Tengu is a supernatural spirit in Japanese folklore. The club named itself after the long-nosed spirit because of their propensity to tell tall tales about the size of the fish they caught.
