Masa Uehara Collection, 1966-1981

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Summary

Creators:
Uehara, Masa and Snyder, Gary--1930-
Abstract:
Masa Uehara was married to the poet Gary Snyder from 1967-1989. The collection consists of 111 letters she received from Gary Snyder over the course of their courtship and married life.
Extent:
0.40 linear feet
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The Masa Uehara Collection consists of 111 letters she received from Gary Snyder over the course of their courtship and married life from 1966-1981.

During the fifteen year period of the correspondence, Snyder traveled extensively, giving readings and lectures at colleges, universities, and other forums all over the United States and abroad. This required him to leave his young family behind for significant portions of every year. In his letters home Snyder kept his wife closely informed about his building network of friends and colleagues, his developing environmental ethics and poetics, and his thoughts about the places he visited.

This collection is arranged in one series, Correspondence. The series is arranged chronologically.

Biographical / historical:
Biographical Narrative

Masa Uehara, daughter of Tokusei and Mitsu, was raised in Japan. She and Gary Snyder were introduced in 1966 at a dinner party hosted by Hisao Kanaseki, one of her university professors and a friend of Snyder's. At the time of their introduction Uehara had recently graduated from Kobe University and was planning to pursue graduate studies at Ochanomizu Women's University.

Uehara and Snyder married on August 6, 1967 in a ceremony which took place on the rim of an active volcano on Suwa-no-se, a small island north of Okinawa. In April 1968, their first son, Kai, was born in Kyoto. The family left Japan in December 1968 to make their home in California. A second son, Gen, was born in 1969. In 1970, Snyder and Uehara and their two young sons took up residence on San Juan Ridge, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near Nevada City, California.

Uehara studied ballet, Japanese classical dance, and Bharat Natyam in Japan and the United States. She was a member of the Balasaraswati dance troupe in Berkeley and performed in Japan, India, and many parts of the United States. She later undertook graduate study in Graphic Design/Visual Communications at California State University, Chico and started her own free-lance design business.

Uehara and Snyder divorced in 1989.

Source: Yamazato, Katsunori. "Seeking a fulcrum: Gary Snyder and Japan (1956-1975)" Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Davis, 1987.

Acquisition information:
Acquired in 2001.
Physical location:
Researchers should contact Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.

Access and use

Location of this collection:
University of California, Davis, Special Collections, UC Davis Library
100 NW Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292, US
Contact:
(530) 752-1621
speccoll@ucdavis.edu
Website