Also known as: Waji’s Japanese immigrant Fujimatsu Moriguchi started Uwajimaya as a small Tacoma fish market in 1928. He named the store after his place of birth. Today, Uwajimaya has become the largest Asian grocery and gift store in the Pacific Northwest. The store also houses the Kinokuniya bookstore, the largest Japanese bookstore in the region. Head back to the Nagomi Tea House (waypoint #24) to see Uwajimaya’s previous location.

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Originally called the Hokubei Hochi/North American Times, the North American Post was founded in 1902. Like other Japanese community newspapers, it shut down operations in 1942 due to the World War II forced removal and incarceration. On June 5, 1946, it resumed operations and is now the largest and oldest Japanese-language newspaper published in the Pacific Northwest.`

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Also known as: Old Uwajimaya Although the tenants may have changed over the years, the blue iconic tile roof has been a mainstay of the neighborhood since the building first opened as home to Uwajimaya in 1970. It is often still referred to as “Old Uwajimaya” by long-time Seattle residents. The site served as cultural and community gathering space, Nagomi Tea House, with its own traditional Japanese Chashitsu tea house,...

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Also known as: Momo; Jackson Loan Office The War Relocation Authority, the civilian federal agency that assumed supervision from the U.S. Army of the 10 major “relocation centers” around the country for the Japanese Americans during World War II, encouraged its charges to leave the camps by relocating away from the U.S. West Coast. College-age Nisei students went off to attend schools in the Midwest or East Coast. Entire families...

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Also known as: Higo; Higo Variety Store; Higo 10 Cents Store “They didn’t throw anything out. It was just really great. Great for all of us.” – Binko Chiong-Bisbee, co-owner of KOBO at Higo “Do you need anything?” Masako “Masa” Murakami was the youngest of the family, which owned and operated the Higo 10 Cents Store/Higo Variety Store for almost 100 years. She was known to stand by the entrance...

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Also known as: Kaname Izakaya and Shochu Bar; Takohachi Itsumono is Japanese for “regular,” a word that sums up what owners Mike Vu and Hisato Kawaminami hoped to create at their restaurant, a place for loyal clientele to connect over food and drinks in Japantown. When you come, don’t miss their saimin, put on the menu at special request for soup of some sort by the Jackson Building’s third-generation owner...

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The trees, plants, benches and public art that line Maynard Avenue north of Jackson Street are no ordinary sidewalk improvement project. Welcome to the Chinatown-International District’s first green street. Developed by InterIm CDA, this self-sustaining watering system captures rain from the nearby building – Nihonmachi Terrace Family Housing – to water the trees, shrubs and grasses. Runoff from the roof flows into the cistern at the top of the block....

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Also known as: “Heaven, Man and Earth” George Tsutakawa was born in Seattle in 1910 and attended the University of Washington, earning both Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees. He served in the United States Army during World War II. He began teaching at the University of Washington in 1947, launching a distinguished career as Professor of Art until 1976. After experimentation with abstract forms in...

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Also known as: Atlas Theatre “I was mesmerized by those movies... that there had been such a time in Japanese history.” - Darrell Kitamura “We were multicultural before it was cool.” - Elaine Kitamura From “Growing Up at the Kokusai Theater,” by David Yamaguchi, North American Post, May 26, 2016 Opened in 1918 as the Atlas Theatre, it was renamed the Kokusai Theater in the 1960s. “Kokusai” means “international” in...

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Also known as: Bush; The Bush Spirits and beer can create a unique ambience, where people come together in the most unrestrained ways. This might be best embodied in the raucous karaoke bar and there’s none more famous in Seattle than Bush Garden, started by the Seko family in 1953. Along with drinks like sake martinis that bring together East and West, Bush Garden’s legendary karaoke nights have also been...

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One of the many stories along the Japanese American Remembrance Trail is of Hiroyuki “Hiro” Nishimura, former resident of assisted living facility Nikkei Manor. Even in his late 90s, Hiro walked around the neighborhood every day. “Hiro’s Walk” is a shortened version of the walk he once took in his younger years, a comfortable half-mile loop in the very center of the Japanese American Remembrance Trail. It connects Nikkei Manor...

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