Kumiko Mishima Obituary
Kumiko Mishima passed away peacefully in her sleep Sunday morning June 9th, 2024 at a nursing home in Milwaukie, Oregon. She was 90 years old.
Kumiko was born in Tokyo, Japan on September 22, 1933 to Ichiro and Tomiko Ike, the second of eight children. Her father's surname was originally Shirozu, but adopted his wife's family name because there were no male heirs in his wife's family. After spending her early childhood in Tokyo, the family moved to Imazu, a small town in Kyushu, Japan's southernmost island, where her mother's family owned farmland. Some family members still live on the same property. Because these were the last years of World War II, she had memories of trenches dug around her grade school, although when the allied bombers appeared, all they dropped were leaflets imploring them to surrender. She did also remember the ground shaking when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
In 1953, through family members, Kumiko was introduced to Richard Mishima in Fukuoka, Japan. Richard, who was born in Fairview, Oregon, also had family roots in the Fukuoka prefecture. After a courtship of several months, Richard and Kumiko were married in Japan on October 26th, 1953. They then travelled back to Oregon, arriving on March 9th, 1954.
Apart from 3 years spent living at the current Portland Nursery site on Stark street in the early 60's, Kumiko lived and raised her family in Boring and Troutdale, spending the last 60 years of her life on the same road in Troutdale. Kumiko and Richard had 2 sons- Eric, born in 1955 and James, born in 1958.
Immediately upon her arrival, Kumiko began working on the family farm. She worked in a variety of jobs after that which included farm & nursery work, a brief stint at a cafeteria at PDX, then working as a seamstress making men's suits and finally at a commercial laundry doing mending, where she finished her working life, retiring at 62 years of age.
Over the years, Kumiko had become an accomplished cook of many things Japanese, and it made her happy to know that people enjoyed her cooking and even would request cooking lessons from her. Late in life Kumiko became Richard's caretaker. Of course she had much help from family and friends, but she felt it was mainly her responsibility to care for Richard. Our family felt lucky to have her in this role of caregiver.
Kumiko was preceded in death by her mother and father, brothers Shaichi, Masaharu, and Katsuyuki, and sisters Yoshiko and Tokue. She is survived by sister Kiyomi, brother Shinichi, sons Eric (Linda), James, grandchildren Erica, Aaron, Sean and Trenton. Of course there are many nieces, nephews, in-laws in Japan, and here in Gresham-Troutdale and Portland area.
We would like to thank all those who reached out to Kumiko in these last months and days.
