Yoshio Kawamoto
Year Inducted: 2002
Parker Ranch | Hawai'i
A third-generation Parker Ranch cowboy born and raised in the Ranch’s Puakea section, Yoshio Kawamoto was a ranch employee from the age of 13. He recalled that he had to pass the test of the Rough Rider gang before he could graduate to being a cowboy. When he was 17 he spent day after day riding wild, bucking horses, trying to prove to his boss that he could stay in the saddle.
“In the old days, you had to know how to train horse before you could ride horse,” he said. “Any horse that come into the breaking pen you have to ride.”
Yoshio took over his father’s job as foreman of one section of the Kohala ranch lands, and in 1971 was made foreman of the entire Kohala section, overseeing 24,000 acres and 9,000 to 10,000 cattle at a time.
As he was given more and more responsibility, he drew on important lessons he learned in his early days from the legendary A. W. Carter, head of Parker Ranch. One of the things he taught Yoshio was when the cattle were ready to be moved. Carter would drop in to inspect his herd at breakfast, lunch and dinner. He'd watch the cattle, saying that if he saw the herd resting and chewing their cud, they were getting enough food, but if they were eating all day long they were hungry and needed to be put in a new pasture.
“That’s how we knew when to move the cattle,” he says.