Uwajimaya, Inc., doing business as , is a family-owned supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 chain with its corporate headquarters in the Industrial District

Industrial District, Seattle, Washington

The Industrial District is the principal industrial area of Seattle, Washington. It is bounded on the west by the Duwamish Waterway and Elliott Bay, beyond which lies Delridge of West Seattle; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which lies Beacon Hill; on the north by S King and S Dearborn Streets,...

, Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

, and with locations in Greater Seattle. Uwajimaya sells mainly Asian food

Asian cuisine

Asian cuisine styles can be broken down into several tiny regional styles that have roots in the peoples and cultures of those regions. The major types can be roughly defined as East Asian with its origins in Imperial China and now encompassing modern Japan and the Korean peninsula; Southeast Asian...

—with an emphasis on Japanese

Japanese cuisine

Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes throughout Japan. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of shogun rule...

—though it also stocks Western staples. The flagship store is in Seattle's Chinatown/International District

International District, Seattle, Washington

The Chinatown-International District of Seattle, Washington is an ethnic enclave neighborhood and is the center of Seattle's Asian American community. The neighborhood is multiethnic, consisting mainly of people who are of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino ethnicity...

 with three other stores in Beaverton, Oregon

Beaverton, Oregon

Beaverton is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, seven miles west of Portland in the Tualatin River Valley.As of the 2010 census, the population is 90,267. This makes it the second-largest city in the county and Oregon's sixth-largest city...

, Bellevue, Washington

Bellevue, Washington

Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...

 and Renton, Washington

Renton, Washington

Renton is an Eastside edge city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington. Founded in the 1860s, Renton became a supply town for the Newcastle coal fields...

. From 1968 to 1991 there was another store near the Westfield Southcenter

Westfield Southcenter

Westfield Southcenter, formerly known as Southcenter Mall, is a shopping mall located in Tukwila, Washington, USA. It is currently anchored by JC Penney, Macy's, Nordstrom, and Sears and owned by the Westfield Group. A Rainforest Cafe is also at the mall...

 mall in Tukwila, Washington

Tukwila, Washington

Tukwila is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The northern edge of Tukwila borders the city of Seattle. The population was 19,107 at the 2010 census.-History:...

.

History

Uwajimaya was founded in 1928 by Fujimatsu Moriguchi of Yawatahama, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, in Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

. Fujimatsu sold fishcakes and other goods from his truck to Japanese farmers, loggers and fishermen at work sites. Moriguchi named his company Uwajima-ya after the town of Uwajima

Uwajima, Ehime

is a city located in Ehime, Japan. In 1595, what is now Uwajima was known as Itajima village. Takatora Tohdo became lord of the Uwa region, and ordered the restoration of Marugushi Castle...

 (Ehime Prefecture

Ehime Prefecture

is a prefecture in northwestern Shikoku, Japan. The capital is Matsuyama.-History:Until the Meiji Restoration, Ehime prefecture was known as Iyo Province...

), where he first entered the business (ya (屋) is the Japanese word for "store").

As part of the internment of Japanese Americans

Japanese American internment

Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...

 following the entry of the United States into World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Moriguchi and his family were sent to the Tule Lake Internment Camp

Tule Lake War Relocation Center

Tule Lake Segregation Center National Monument was an internment camp in the northern California town of Newell near Tule Lake. It was used in the Japanese American internment during World War II. It was the largest and most controversial of the camps, and did not close until after the war, in...

 in 1942. Upon their release, they moved to Seattle and set up shop at 422 S. Main Street in the International District

International District, Seattle, Washington

The Chinatown-International District of Seattle, Washington is an ethnic enclave neighborhood and is the center of Seattle's Asian American community. The neighborhood is multiethnic, consisting mainly of people who are of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino ethnicity...

.

In the 1960s Uwajimaya began to expand its offering of non-food items and imported food from Japan and other Asian countries and experienced tremendous growth at the Century 21 Exposition

Century 21 Exposition

The Century 21 Exposition was a World's Fair held April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962 in Seattle, Washington.Nearly 10 million people attended the fair...

 In 1962. That same year, Fujimatsu Moriguchi died, and breaking with Japanese tradition, control of the company was passed to his four sons, rather than only his eldest son.

In 1970, the store moved two blocks south to 6th Avenue S. and S. King Street, thus becoming one of the biggest in the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

, and expanded in 1978 adding more than half again its original size. 1978 also saw the opening of the Bellevue Uwajimaya.

In 1991, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

-based Kinokuniya Bookstore

Books Kinokuniya

is a Japanese bookstore chain operated by , founded in 1927, with its first store located in Shinjuku, Tokyo.It means "Store of Kii Province". The company has its headquarters in Meguro, Tokyo.-History:...

 opened its first Seattle location on the second floor of the Seattle store selling primarily Japanese language

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 books, movies, DVD, videos, music, and periodicals.

In 1998 Uwajimaya, with Lorig Associates, started developing Uwajimaya Village, a mixed retail, residential center that would take up three city blocks including the purchase and closure of S. Lane Street between 5th and 6th Avenues South. The Lane Street closure was controversial within the community, especially among some local small-business owners who were concerned that it would increase traffic, decrease emergency vehicle access, and have a negative economic impact on other businesses. The International District saw a protest of over 500 strong, the biggest street protests since the Kingdome

Kingdome

The Kingdome was a multi-purpose stadium located in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. Owned and operated by King County, the Kingdome opened in 1976 and was best known as the home stadium of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League , the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball , and the...

 was built. Save Lane Street, a group formed to stop the street closure, collected over $140,000 and 4,000 signatures and sued both the city of Seattle and Uwajimaya. The group lost their case, eventually appealing to the King County Superior Court and then the state Court of Appeals. In the end S. Lane Street was vacated to allow Uwajimaya to provide a pedestrian walkway to customer parking to the South.

In 1998 Uwajimaya opened its third store, the first outside Washington located in Oregon near the Beaverton high-tech corridor.

Upon completion of the Uwajimaya Village project in 2000, the flagship store moved one block south to a building twice the size of the previous store. Uwajimaya Village includes a food court

Food court

A food court is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining. Food courts may be found in shopping malls and airports, and in various regions may be a standalone development...

, bank

Bank

A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...

, restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

, optician

Optician

An optician is a person who is trained to fill prescriptions for eye correction in the field of medicine, also known as a dispensing optician or optician, dispensing...

, beauty salon

Beauty salon

A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for men and women...

, cellular wireless store, and cosmetic shop. The Kinokuniya Bookstore also relocated to a new location at the corner of 5th Avenue S. and S. Weller Street. Above the first floor of retail shops and underground parking garage is the 176-unit Uwajimaya Village Apartments.

Sadako (Tsutakawa) Moriguchi, wife of Fujimatsu and sister of George Tsutakawa

George Tsutakawa

George Tsutakawa , sculptor and painter, was born in Seattle, Washington. Tsutakawa spent much of his childhood in Okayama, Japan. He returned to Seattle at the age of 16, where he attended Broadway High School before earning a BFA at the University of Washington. One of his early mentors was...

, died in 2002.

In 2008, Uwajimaya anchored a redevelopment proposal, similar to the Uwajimaya Village, for Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

's Old Town/Chinatown

Old Town Chinatown, Portland, Oregon

Old Town Chinatown is a neighborhood in the Northwest section of Portland, Oregon. The Willamette River forms its eastern boundary, separating it from the Lloyd District and the Kerns and Buckman neighborhoods...

.

Uwajimaya opened a new location in Renton, Washington

Renton, Washington

Renton is an Eastside edge city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington. Founded in the 1860s, Renton became a supply town for the Newcastle coal fields...

 on July 1, 2009

External links

• Uwajimaya Company Website
• Mainichi Daily News Article Jan 06
• Chiu, Iisa. "Chinatown International District: Dim sum and then some." Seattle Times. November 24, 2005. Modified on November 25, 2005.
• Ramirez, Marc. "Uwajimaya celebrates its 80th anniversary." Seattle Times. October 8, 2008.