Browse Items (40 total)

The Hotel Taihei was built in 1913 by a local contractor named George Veteran. It was the first hotel in Japantown and at the time it was the tallest building with three stories. It was owned by Kumataro and Tsuru Taketa and was a popular…

Originally located on the north part of Sixth Street Kohei Kogura started his business in 1928 and moved his store to its current location at 231 Jackson Street in 1934. The Kogura Department Store was one of the few stores that survived the…

Torahiko Kawakami and one of his sons in front of the Dobashi Restaurant and Tanabe's Ice Cream and Candy Store on Jackson Street. The Kawakami family ran numerous businesses for over seventy years.

Built in 1916 the Japanese Hall replaced the previous hall located on 5th and Taylor Streets that burned down the previous year. The hall was built thanks to Fukuichi Okida and other community leaders who put up the funds for it and was constructed…

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

The Wayne Basket Company was started by the Shimizu family in 1913 and was located a few blocks away from the Japantown on Horning Street. The company was a main source of employment for the Japanese community for a number of years and after World…

The Yamato Bathhouse was built in 1910 near the Chinatown area. The two story building had the traditional Japanese bath on the ground floor and the family who ran the business lived on the second. Since many people did not have baths in their own…

The Kuwabara Hospital was built in 1910 by brothers Gentaro and Shinzaburo Nishiura at 565 North 5th Street and named after its first resident Dr. Taisuke Kuwabara. Because Japanese doctors were not officially licensed by the state at the time Dr.…

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 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…