![]() ![]() Hanlon to hold a Court of Historical Review to settle, as Averbuch stated, “the classical confrontation between the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco” each claiming, among other things, their city as the site where the fortune cookie originated. Sally Osaki was the Administrative Assistant to San Francisco Supervisor, Louise Renne, when Bernard Averbuch, President of the San Francisco Boosters, solicited Superior Court Judge Daniel M. The 1983 San Francisco Court of Historical Review (Mock Trial) Today, Brian knows my cousins, Rick and Bobby Okamura and are on friendly terms with them.įollowing are three presentations, which I believe will support what strongly appears to reveal the true origin of the fortune cookie in America: Roy, now deceased, said he and his father knew my Jiichan and Uncle Hippo Okamura. Little Tokyo is the Los Angeles equivalent to San Francisco’s Japantown. In Los Angeles we interviewed Roy Kito and his son, Brian, who is now the third generation owner operator of Fugetsudo, a Little Tokyo Japanese confectionary. ![]() Ricky and Bobby dedicated the Centennial to their late Jiichan Suyeichi and recently deceased father, Hirofumi “Hippo” Okamura. We also interviewed my Auntie Sue Okamura and two of her four sons, Ricky and Bobby who continue to operate Benkyodo, the manju-ya (Japanese confectionary shop) which recently celebrated it’s centennial. In San Francisco, in addition to Sally Osaki and Tomoye Takahashi, we interviewed Erik Sumiharu Hagiwara-Nagata, a great, great grandson of Japanese Tea Garden founder Makoto Hagiwara, who is often cited as the one who introduced the fortune cookie in the Tea Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. To accomplish this task, I worked with the staff at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles who were interested in my project for use in a future exhibition. I felt compelled to share what I’ve learned and hope, in some format, to add it to the pages of a still growing Japanese American history as more stories are revealed. She was right and did they ever!Įncouraged by their gracious generosity in sharing their experiences and knowledge, I felt more confident to attempt to tell this story about our grandfather. She said they seemed to know a lot about Japantown history and Jiichan’s business in the Japantown community. One of my six sisters, Teresa introduced me to two well-established San Franciscans, Sally (Noda) Osaki and Tomoye Takahashi, both Nisei who she got to know through the Japanese American Community Cultural Center of Northern California. Some of us younger members of the Ono and Okamura families grew more interested in the story that tied Jiichan to the fortune cookie. It was a time when, for Asian Americans, like for the Blacks (African Americans), ethnic pride and confidence was growing in strength. Growing up, I became more interested in Japanese American and family history and that curiosity heightened during the 1970-1980 period when the movements for redress and reparation began. It was even imagined that he might have invented it! It was during those times we first heard tidbits that our Ojiisan (grandfather), or Jiichan as we called him, was linked to the origin of the fortune cookie. We’d head back to the steamy, warm room anticipating the cherished close family bonding that surrounded us during those ensuing days. Reporting for work at the crack of dawn, we’d sleepily walk past the idle “merry-go-round” like machine-inactive because during the weeklong period between Christmas and the New Year, mochi production became Benkyodo’s main focus. Mochi is a food staple key to Shogatsu, the New Year’s celebration by the Japanese. When we grandchildren became old enough, as kind of a rite of passage, we were invited to help in the Benkyodo family’s annual production of mochi (cooked, pounded sweet rice-cake). Suyeichi Okamura, 1906 founder of Benkyodo Company, San Francisco.
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