The rich life of Toshi Hashimoto
Toshio Hashimoto knows that life is not just a simple, straight road. His life has certainly taken him in many different, and yet all very meaningful and beautiful, paths. People know Toshio as a master auto mechanic, an expert shiitake mushroom grower, an avid Taiko drummer, a dedicated Mahoosuc Mountain Rescue Team member, and a devout Shingon Buddhist. It all started on the small island of Oshima in postwar Japan, not far from the city of Hiroshima and, shall we say, fate brought him to Maine.
When Toshio was young, he spent three years in Malaysia and Borneo, teaching and working with agricultural machinery in the Japanese equivalent of the Peace Corps. After his assignment, he traveled through Asia and North America. “I wanted to leave that small, crowded society—Japan—and see the world,” Toshio explains.
His travels brought him to Boston in 1979, where he settled and met his wife, Kalin Yu. He found work as a gardener and then as an automotive mechanic for various Japanese car dealers in the Boston area. Then, in 1983, intrigued by a real estate advertisement in the Boston Globe, he purchased a twenty-three-acre wooded hillside in western Maine. He and his wife traveled to Maine for vacations and camping trips. In 1987, they relocated to Rumford and the Androscoggin River valley and built a family there. “It’s fate. In Maine, there’s good air. Nature.”
In 1991, Toshi opened Toshimobile, a foreign-auto repair business. But in recent years, he has focused more on growing shiitake mushrooms, as his son now manages the shop. “Shiitakes have the best taste. When Japan began cultivating wild mushrooms, shiitakes were the first mushrooms they grew, and I feel like my Japanese identity is expressed when growing these mushrooms.”
In 2011, Toshi almost quit growing mushrooms, because he didn’t have the extra help he needed to grow them. Toshi went back to Japan to undertake the Shikoku Pilgrimage, also known as Shikoku Henro. The Shikoku Henro is a 1,200-year-old, 1,200km pilgrimage to 88 Buddhist temples located on Japan’s Shikoku Island. “On my Shikoku Henro pilgrimage, I walked for 40 days and visited 88 temples. As I walked, I felt as though the Buddha was giving me life. It felt like my life had been returned to me. I felt encouraged. When I came back to the U.S., I had renewed energy to keep growing mushrooms, but in a different way.”
When not growing mushrooms or working at Toshimobile, you will find Toshi either hiking in the mountains or practicing Japanese taiko drumming. Toshi is an avid hiker and a member of the Mahoosuc Mountain Search and Rescue team. He climbs Mount Washington every February on Washington’s birthday, and Mount Katahdin every June.