Seito Saibara

Seito Saibara

Seito Saibara was an agriculturist, lawyer, university president, and member of the Japanese Parliament. Saibara arrived in Hartford Connecticut in 1901 to study theology and teach the Japanese about Christianity but in 1903, the Houston Chamber of Commerce invited him to the area to advise farmers on rice cultivation. He arrived in Webster, Texas with his family and thirty colonists, established the first Japanese Christian colony in Texas, and planted Japanese strains of rice with higher yields than American rice.

Clear Lake Heritage Society Book Records, #2011-0003, University of Houston-Clear Lake Archives

Bay Area Museum