Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Researching George Masa


Back in 1999 I began a research and production effort that led to the making of The Mystery of George Masa documentary film. With it's release in 2002 to the PBS system the 86 minute film aired in about 40% of the United States. This year, a one-hour version will be released to the PBS system to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Masa's inclusion in Ken Burns' new film The National Parks: America's Best Idea

My full length film is, to date, the most accurate and extensive collection of research about Masa and his life. While it contains only a fraction of the information that we have on Masa, it does reveals a broad overview of his life, introduces the discoveries that the film made and also poses the most interesting questions that are still unresolved. Bill Hart Jr.'s fine article George Masa: The Best Mountaineer. In May We All Remember Well: A Journal of the History & Cultures of Western North Carolina, vol. 1. Edited by R. S. Brunk, was the starting off point for our film research. It is accurate, informative and vital for anyone doing research on Masa.

With the expectation that many people will hear about George Masa for the first time, I'm making this blog so that people that are interested in researching the story or who come across relevant information about the significant mysteries that exist about Masa have a place to contact me, and post this information for others.

Here is a list of what I consider the most important questions that surround the story of George Masa.

-Proof of his life before he arrived in Asheville, NC in December 1914. Evidence of someone named Masahara Izuka, George Masa, (or a combination of those names)arriving into and/or living and working in the United States between 1900 and 1915. He was known to have traveled from San Francisco to New Orleans to Asheville, NC, and also to have spent time in Washington DC, Sulpher Springs, VA, and Denver, Colorado.

-Photos by George Masa (please see the next post for photo ID clues). Thousands of his photos are missing. Many were sold after his death to a photographer named Elliot Lyman Fisher who lived in Asheville, NC until the mid-1950's and then died in Florida in 1968. There is no trace of a single Masa image from the thousands Fisher bought.

-Connection to, or evidence of any surviving family members in Japan. This will be the topic of a future post, identifying what we know about Masa's family in Japan. Due to the time that has passed, language differences and sheer number of people on the planet, this is perhaps the most unlikely mystery to be solved.

These are just the top 3, I will add more to this soon.

Thanks for reading.

Identification of George Masa Photographs

One of the most asked questions I get is: How do you know what is a George Masa Photo?

I'm going to give you the short answer and some visuals to help. These are not definitive, but helpful.

If you are looking at an original, intact photos, most (but not all) have some identification on them. Usually in a lower corner. The strongest indicator of a photo by George Masa is his numbering system and his handwriting. Here is an example.



This is an example of a photo that was taken by Masa sometime between 1920 and his death in 1933. Based on the numbering system and its relation to some events he photographed and correspondence where he cited numbers we can roughly 'date' a photo.

Another sign that Masa may have taken the photo would be a stamp on the back of one of his companies, Asheville Photo Company was one of his longer lasting companies, and in the early 1930's he often stamped the back of photos with that stamp.


Another sign of a possible Masa photo is the handwritten ID of Plateau Studios.
Masa ran this business in the early 1920's and then sold it around 1925. The name was used after he sold the business, but the distinctive sign (sometimes with a number, sometimes without) seems to be only from the period when Masa was the primary photographer at work.



As I mentioned, there are other indicators of a possible Masa photo, subject matter, quality and composition are other indicators. Since these are less precise and harder to describe I'm not going to elaborate. But feel free to post photos for me and other Masa researchers to evaluate. This is one reason I'm starting this blog.

Finally, in my next post I'll talk about Elliot Lyman Fisher, and how his stamp (shown below) may connect us to photos of Masa that are not labeled with any other 'Masa' brand.