The Armenian Who Invented the Japanese Sweet Bun

It is also important that Hovhannes Sagoyan trained several generations of Japanese bakers, with his most famous student being Fukuda Motoyoshi, the creator of the so-called Japanese hotel or milk bread.

Sagoyan married Tsuruko (Tsuru) Sagoyan (1888-1962), neé Miakozawa, and had three daughters. They did not have Japanese citizenship, as according to Japanese law, children born to Japanese and foreigners could not be Japanese citizens. Sagoyan’s daughters, though almost with no knowledge of Armenian, considered themselves Armenian and attended the main cathedral of the Japanese Orthodox Church – Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Chiyoda, Tokyo.

Archbishop Ruben Manasyan of Echmiadzin, who visited Japan in 1925, wrote the following in his report to Catholicos of All Armenians Gevorg V (the letter is kept in the National Archives of Armenia): “In Tokyo, Hovhannes Ghevenian from Erzurum, who has lived in Japan for many years, had a Japanese wife and three daughters who had not yet been baptized. The wife, Tsuruko Miakozawa and daughters — Kimiko, Eugenia and Lily — were baptized by my hand, accepting Armenian Apostolicity, and Hovhannes Ghevenian and Tsuruko Miakozawa were married according to the Armenian Church ritual.” In other sources the names Jane (Jenny) and Anna are also mentioned for Ghevenian’s daughters: we are not sure whether they are the names of other daughters or are the second names of aforementioned people.

The Sagoyans were referring to a letter sent by a Boston-based Armenian (with signature H. Kh.) to the Hairenik (Homeland) Armenian newspaper in 1932. “In Tokyo (Japan) I have a friend who is married to a Japanese girl, they have three daughters, one is 12, the other is 15 and the third is 18. My friend expresses a desire to come to America permanently or temporarily to create opportunities for her daughters to receive American education.” However, Ghevenyan’s wish did not come true.

One of Sagoyan’s daughters, Lily, looked Armenian. Prior to 1941 she was a correspondent for the Hairenik weekly English newspaper of Boston. In 1943-1945 she worked as a typist at Radio Tokyo. At times, she conducted the English-language propagandist program “Zero Hour,” which was circulated to anti-Nazi factions in the Pacific. Thus, Lily became a member of Tokyo Rose – this name was given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. By the way, Lily Ghevenian was interrogated as a witness during the famous trial of American-Japanese radio host Iva Ikuko Togur d’Aquino (the latter accused of collaborating with the so-called Axis Forces in World War II).

Ivan Sagoyan died in 1952 in Tokyo. He is buried in the Yokohama Foreigners’ Cemetery,. His daughters wrote the father’s name on his tombstone in English.