Keijiro Yanagimoto, class of 2007

Keijiro or Kei to his classmates was born in 1959 in Miyazaki Japan, a place near Okinawa. As a child he grew near a river. He remembers constructing makeshift 25ft rafts out of logs, tied together with ropes, with which he would float down the river.

He was fascinated with floating on top of the water and he knew that beyond the river basin was the large Pacific Ocean he dreamed to see on day.

Japan and Japanese were going through hard days at that period and most people had very little disposable income. His mother would work in a lumber mill and when she would come home and hug him he remember the smell of wood, which stayed in his memory since then.

During the years he attended High School his father who was working for Japan Rail was seriously ill. Kei had to take various jobs to help with medical expenses. Thus he never got the opportunity to attend University. He studied accounting on his own and eventually got a job as an accountant at the Sorinkai Medical Institute, in the near by Miyakonojo city, where he worked for 20 years, starting as an apprentice.

Starting in 2001 he was able to travel and still maintain his employment at the hospital, for which he would work remotely with the help of his computer and the Internet. He went to Toronto, Canada to expand his knowledge of English. In 2001 Kei was in Nova Scotia where he saw the Bluenose Schooner, in Lunenburg. He loved that boat which had been recently restored (?) His childhood dream to construct means to float on water out of wood reemerged and decided to investigate how to train himself on this craft.
He moved to Vancouver where he could learn to sail and the boating activity was year around unlike winter stricken Toronto. He was unable find an institution to attend that would combine yacht design and construction. He thus decided to come to the USA and liked Newport and all the sailing culture. IYRS decided was the right place and he enrolled in 2005. His plan was to expand his studies with yacht design and eventually own his own shipyard in Japan where many boats and classic yachts are abandoned into destruction.
Kei impressed with his varied knowledge of popular American music, Jazz and classical works as well as Western Literature and history. He loved good cuisine and a glass of Guinness on Fridays. He enjoyed traveling and would visit places few people visit any more like Waldo Pond as a reader of Thoreau and Emerson , Bronx cemetery where Miles Davis is buried. He had a unique sense of humor and would often talk about history of the Japanese Imperial Navy and the Samurai era.

Kei returned to Japan after graduation. He began immediately to prepare for achieving his dream to have his own boat yard. He rented a fabulous space and begun to work on the construction of a Haven 12 ½. He was alone and things would move slowly but judging from the pictures he sent us he has made great progress. While there his mother passed away and now he is wishing to come back to the US in first opportunity. Anyone who wants to join him in Japan he is welcome.

Keijiro Yanagimoto, class of 2007