Sawako Kono, sadly, passed away suddenly last month. She was 70 years young. She was born in Japan but moved to California in the late 1970’s. In the US, friends knew her by her adopted American name, Carol.
Sawako (Carol) was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, in the southern part of the main island, Honshu, about 50 miles south of Hiroshima. She graduated from Kyoritsu Women’s University in Tokyo with a degree in English Literature. After graduation, she accepted a position with Pioneer Electronics in Tokyo. A Pioneer Vice President, Bart Locanthi, travelled frequently from Pioneer’s southern California offices to Tokyo. Mr. Locanthi and Sawako became acquainted with each other during his visits to Tokyo. She expressed a desire to leave Japan and explore the world. One day, Mr. Locanthi mentioned that his large home in Los Angeles felt empty to him and his wife after his children moved out. He suggested that Sawako could come to live with them, plus he’d provide her a secretarial position at Pioneer California and sponsor her green card. She accepted.
After arriving in California in 1978, she continued working for Pioneer and then transitioned into employment with Japanese trading companies. In the late 1980s, she moved to San Clemente in Orange County, studied diligently and obtained her Real Estate Broker license in 1989.
With a built-in advantage of fluency in Japanese and her native familiarity with the Japanese culture, she was successful in working with Japanese clients in Orange County who were assigned from Japan to jobs in California. Successful results came quickly. In 1990, with Century 21 Emery in Laguna Niguel, she sold over $1,000,000 in property in a 15 day period. She was recognized in consecutive weeks as one of the agents of the week and was a top 10 agent in the company. She continued helping clients buy, sell, and lease properties for the next 12 years.
Her talents as an artist emerged in full display in the 90’s after taking Tole painting classes. Tole painting is a unique style that originated in the Welsh town of Pontypool in the 1660s and was popularized by Charles Tole in the 1900’s. Sawako perfected the technique on a variety of household objects, including the one shown here in the photo.
In the early to mid-1990’s, her desire to explore the world was partially realized. She was able to accompany her boyfriend at the time, whom she married in 1992, on several business trips. These included visits to the following: 1) Barcelona, Spain which features the sprawling pedestrian avenue in the city center called Las Ramblas, the Sagrada Familia and other works designed by Gaudi, the famous architect; 2) the small county of Andorra, nestled in the Pyrenees mountains; 3) the Hague, capital of Holland, and the amazing city of Amsterdam, home of the world famous Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum; 4) the famous university town of Oxford, England; 5) the Tower of London and attendance at the friendly soccer match between England and the US, which the US won, at Wembley Stadium; 6) Milan, Italy. home of il Duomo and the La Scala Opera House; 7) the tiny, but majestic country of Monaco, with its Grand Casino, top restaurants and harbor; 8) Sydney, Australia, highlighted by beautiful weather on Australia Day standing in front of the Sydney Opera House, facing the Sydney Harbor Bridge, while a fleet of tall ships sailed out and then returned to the harbor; 9) Auckland, New Zealand, with visits to shear sheep, to the hot springs of Rotarura and the Waitomo glowworm caves.
A few years later, she made a triumphant return to her native Japan after not visiting there for many years. It was also a chance for her husband to meet the rest of her family and experience Japanese culture and hospitality at its best. There were memorable excursions to shrines, castles, flower fields, and other attractions, such as the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park, an overnight stay on the island of Miyajima, a private multi-course Japanese dinner in Osaka, and many rides on the super-fast, always punctual, and comfortable Shinkansen bullet train with maximum speeds up to 200 miles per hour.
In the next few years, there were several other trips to Japan including Nagasaki and a volcano on Kyushu island and a road trip to Shikoku island.
Early into the new century, there were vacation trips to England and Italy. Exploring England outside London, while driving on the other side, included visits to Stonehenge, the historic old city of Bath, the seaside city of Cardiff in Wales and Shakespeare’s birthplace. Italy was a whirlwind with stays and stops in Rome, Florence, wine tasting in Tuscany, Sienna, and Pisa.
In 2006, harking back to her time assisting a local librarian in Japan, Sawako began volunteering at the Heritage Park Library in Irvine. Soon after, she learned of an opening as a library page at Irvine’s University Park Library. After a short time as a Page, she was promoted to the position of Library Clerk at the circulation desk. After working with patrons for a few years, she began thinking about some challenges for Japanese patrons. First, it was expensive to purchase books in Japanese due to their high craftsmanship and the unfavorable yen-dollar exchange rates. Second, many Japanese patrons were unaware they could borrow Japanese language books for free. Third, the existing Japanese book collection needed updating and was small compared to offerings in other languages. With permission from her manager to request Japanese book donations, but basically all on her own, Sawako created flyers, posted them in Japanese supermarkets, sent articles to local Japanese publications, and, voila, donations poured in.
The donation numbers are staggering. Contrary to news articles at the time, which misstated the numbers, here are the actual numbers. The University Park Library had 300 Japanese books in 2009 before Sawako began her donation drive. Four years later, the University Park branch had 3,146 Japanese books, valued at over $56,000. Sawako’s efforts were recognized in November 2011 when the County Librarian, Helen Fried, presented Sawako with the Director’s Award (see photo). Fried said “Sawako’s personal commitment to excellence has led to a great increase in University Park’s Japanese book collection. Her personal pride in her work is very much appreciated and is an inspiration to all of us”.
In addition to the donation efforts, Sawako spent over a year cataloging the OC library’s Japanese book collection. She also promoted Japanese cultural awareness and engagement by hosting events at University Park, such as Japanese Tea ceremonies, the art of origami, kimono exhibitions, and story time sessions. She received a congratulatory letter in 2016 from Helen Fried and a certificate for 10 years of library service.
Her immense artistic talents re-emerged briefly last fall with creative drawings for each sign of the zodiac, as seen in two brilliant examples in the photos here.
To say that Sawako (Carol) will be missed is a major understatement. She already is immensely missed. Those who met her were immediately captivated by her charm, her smile, her laugh, her kindness, her beauty and her warmth.
Her posthumous name is Maishunin Jiyo SawaDaishi, which translates as “American spring. Spirit of service Sawako”.
She is survived by her husband, Robert Bubnovich; her sisters and husbands, Kumiko and Satoru Tanaka, and Mashiko and Keiji Nishimura of Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan; and nieces, Eriko Sakka, Maiko Inazawa, Miwa Yamamoto, and Sachi Tanaka.
The following poem is a tribute to Sawako.
“I Felt an Angel” Author unknown
I felt an angel near today, though one I could not see
I felt an angel oh so close, sent to comfort me
I felt an angel’s kiss, soft upon my cheek
And oh, without a single word of caring did it speak
I felt an angel’s loving touch, soft upon my heart
And with that touch, I felt the pain and hurt within depart
I felt an angel’s tepid tears, fall softly next to mine
And knew that as those tears did dry a new day would be mine
I felt an angel’s silken wings enfold me with pure love
And felt a strength within me grow, a strength sent from above
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