Masa, George, 1881-1933

<p>Born in Japan in 1881, Masahara Izuka later moved to the United States and changed his name to George Masa. He came to North Carolina and first worked at the Grove Park Inn as a valet and a bellhop. Later he became a professional photographer, photographing the local area and selling his photos. His photographs appeared in magazines, newspapers, brochures, and on postcards.</p>

<p>He became interested in the Appalachian Mountains around Asheville, North Carolina and began photographing and mapping them. Masa was part of a local hiking group, the Carolina Mountain Club, and Masa mapped trails in the mountains using a device he fashioned himself out of a bicycle tire and an odometer. Twenty-eight years after his death, in 1961, Masa Knob, a peak in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was named in honor of his memory and to celebrate his work.</p>

<p>BIRTH 20 Jan 1881, Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan</p>
<p>DEATH 21 Jun 1933 (aged 52), Leicester, Buncombe County, North Carolina, USA</p>
<p>BURIAL Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, USA</p>

<p>George Masa (1881 – June 21, 1933), born Masahara Izuka, in Osaka, Japan, was a businessman and professional large-format photographer.</p>

<p>Masa arrived in the United States in 1901. In 1915, he settled in Asheville, North Carolina, where he would spend the final 18 years of his life.</p>

<p>After initially working for the Grove Park Inn as a bellhop and valet, Masa left the inn to take a position as a photographer in February 1919. Eventually, he founded Plateau Studio (a business he later sold, which is still in operation today).</p>

<p>Using his photographic equipment and an odometer he crafted from an old bicycle, Masa meticulously catalogued a significant number of peaks, the distances between them, and the names given to them by the local settlers and the Cherokee. He was a friend of Horace Kephart, and the two of them worked together to ensure that a large portion of the Great Smoky Mountains would be established as a national park. Masa also scouted and marked the entire North Carolina portion of the Appalachian Trail.</p>

<p>Masa died in 1933 from influenza. In 1961, Masa Knob, a peak of 5,685 feet in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was named in Masa's honor.</p>