Joaquin Miller, a well-known poet as the "Byron of Oregon", lived his final years on the hills above Oakland, California. Many literary figures and artists gathered there, which seemed to be "a mecca for the lovers of art." Among them was Yone Noguchi, who wrote some volumes of poetry and was praised in the U. S. and England. He returned to Japan as a world-famous poet.<BR>At the turn of the century some Japanese young men follwed Noguchi to stay at Miller's heights, since Miller was born to a Quaker family and was not a racist. Some of them hoped to be poets and others, painters.<BR>Isen Kanno, who was born in Sanuma, Miyagi Prefecture, and studied theology in Doshisha, came to Oakland in 1903 and became one of Miller's students. While he learned the art of composing poetry, he fell in love with a sculptress, Gertrude F. Boyle, who stayed there to make a bust of Miller's mother. Though the Japanese were then prohibited from marrying the white American women by law, he was married to Gertrude to prove what love could do.<BR>He wrote articles for the Japanese immigrants' newspapers and composed poetry. One of his works was <I>Creation Dawn</I> privately published in 1913, which was staged at the Forest Theater in Carmel-by-the-Sea with Mr. and Mrs. Kanno playing parts of hero and heroin. They got a great reputation from both Japanese and Americans by this performance. Isen Kanno must have been happy to be successful, but Fortune didn't keep smiling on him. His happy life was suddenly broken by his wife's love affair with a young art student, Eitaro Ishigaki. This scandal created such a great sensation among the San Franciscans that Gertrude and Ishigaki could stay there no longer and moved to New York. Isen suffered from the betrayal by the two he had believed in. After a month he left Miller's heights and went to Aileton to be a farmer.<BR>This is an essay on Isen Kanno's life from his birth to the days he lived in Oakland and San Francisco. The rest of his life will be made clear in the next essay.