Uwajimaya

Fujimatsu Moriguchi came from Yawatahama, learned the trade in Uwajima, and in 1928 began selling fishcakes and Japanese staples off the back of a truck in Tacoma to laborers, farmers, loggers and fishermen at their work sites [1] [2]. He gave the business the name Uwajima-ya, ya being the word for store, and his wife Sadako ran a small shop near downtown Tacoma [1]. The family then spent time at the Tule Lake camp, and afterward settled in Seattle and started again, bringing in goods from Japan [1] [2]. A booth at the 1962 fair drew customers who were not Japanese, and that push is credited with the growth that followed [1]. Fujimatsu died that same summer, and control passed to his four sons rather than the eldest alone, with the sons afterward sharing the business with their three sisters and their mother [1] [2]. In 1970 the Seattle store moved two blocks south and became the largest Japanese supermarket in the Pacific Northwest [1].