Browse Items (40 total)

From September 8th to the 15th of 1990 San Jose's Japantown celebrated it's Centennial. A exhibit was created for the event showcasing the history of the neighborhood and was housed in the Betsuin gymnasium of the San Jose Buddhist Church. In…

The 4th Street Pharmacy was opened in the Post-War period between Dave Sakamoto and Tomoo Inouye who ran it for over forty years. The pharmacy was a major stopping spot for the local community as it had the only post office in the area and its lunch…

This short documentary was created in 1990 by Curt Fukuda and Dr. Tokio Ishikawa for the Japanese American Resource Center in preparation for the Japantown Centennial. Using a slide show of images Dr. Tokio Ishikawa narrates the history of the…

The Watch Repair Shop was run by Bill Furukawa for over fifty years after he moved it out of Kogura's Department Store in 1952. The shop which was located at 599 North Fifth Street is currently the location of Ukulele Source. Bill and his wife Peggy…

The San Jose Hongwanji Buddhist Church was built in 1937 at 640 North Fifth Street to replace the original which was a two story wooden building. The original church was established in 1902. Reverend Honen Takahashi hired Gentaro and Shinzaburo…

Children posing after a ten day dance class with their sensei Yoshio Tomita.

The Dobashi market was opened in 1912 by Kinosuke Dobashi who originally named it the Kinokuniya Shoten. The store would eventually adopt the name of its owners and in 1935 the original building was torn down and replaced with the current building.…

During the 1990 Japantown Centennial Celebration Dr. Tokio Ishikawa gave numerous walking tours to the public. As a longtime resident of Japantown Dr. Ishikawa knew the history of the town very well. In this picture at the corner of North Sixth…

Ed Morihiro opened this service station which was the first in Japantown in 1932 with the help of his brother-in-law Takeo Tanizawa who built a grocery store next door. Ed ran the station until the internment of Japanese Americans during World War…

The Japanese community participating in the 1926 Fiesta de Las Rosas celebration. The float pictured almost won first place but was disqualified when it was revealed that it wasn't completely made out of just roses.