Our Mr. Matsura

Our Mr. Matsura is the story of photographer Frank Matsura who journeyed from his native Japan to live in rural Washington State in the early 1900s. The son of a samurai, orphaned at a young age, Matsura was raised in Tokyo in the early Meiji Era, emigrated to Seattle as a young man and eventually made his way to Okanogan County, Washington. There he embedded himself in a community of Native people and homesteaders, including cowboys, ranchers, miners, fruit growers, shopkeepers, small business owners and other local movers and shakers. In the short time he had in the Okanogan, he became one of the area's leading photo-chroniclers and, arguably, its most beloved citizen.