Nagasawa Kanaye

Kanaye Nagasawa (né Isonaga Hikosuke; February 2, 1852 – February 14, 1934) was an American winemaker in California, the first former Japanese national to live permanently in the United States, a recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun, and a disciple of Thomas Lake Harris, the self-proclaimed "Father and Pivot and Primate and King of the Brotherhood of the New Life". Nagasawa followed Harris from New York out to Santa Rosa, California, where he eventually took over Harris' Fountaingrove estate. Nagasawa died in 1934, but the round barn he constructed at Fountaingrove was a landmark in Sonoma County.

Early life Nagasawa was born in Kagoshima, Japan, on February 2, 1852, a member of the Satsuma clan and the son of a samurai.

Nagasawa, being too young for university, was sent to Aberdeen, Scotland, to live with the family of Thomas Blake Glover and attend school. In Scotland, he met English nobleman Laurence Oliphant, who was a disciple of Thomas Lake Harris and had been asked to find potential recruits for his New York State commune. Oliphant took Nagasawa, along with five other Satsuma students, to New York to join Harris' community there. Nagasawa studied at Cornell University for one year in 1870. While the other students who had left Japan with Nagasawa returned home shortly afterwards, he stayed with Harris and eventually followed him out to California when Harris left Brocton, New York.

Nagasawa arrived in California in 1875 at age 23. The community Harris established in Santa Rosa was named Fountaingrove, and the ranch encompassed 1,000 acres. Harris brought winemaker Dr. John Hyde to the property to plant grapes and instruct the disciples in viticulture. Nagasawa became winemaker after Hyde left, and made wine for the Brotherhood of the New Life's store in New York City as well as for the British Isles. Harris attributed the wine's success to the spiritual qualities of the Fountain Grove community. Harris left Fountain Grove in 1891, though, after journalist Alzire Chevaillier wrote several articles for the San Francisco Chronicle saying that the commune leader was a charlatan. Harris died in 1906 without ever returning to Fountain Grove, and Nagasawa took over the estate. In an elaborate ceremony at Fountaingrove, Nagasawa was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun at the request of Emperor Taishō.

Death and legacy Nagasawa died in 1934, having endured growing anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States. Services were held in Santa Rosa and he was cremated in the San Francisco Bay Area. Despite efforts to pass the Fountaingrove property on to his relatives, including his American-born grand-nephew and grand-niece, via the California Alien Land Law of 1913, the land was seized by the Santa Rosa City Council and sold in an estate sale. The property became a cattle ranch, and today is largely a residential development, although several hundred acres are still planted. Nagasawa's round barn was a landmark in Santa Rosa, and a 33-acre park was named in his honor in 2007.