Uwajimaya Uwajimaya was founded in 1928 by Fujimatsu Moriguchi of Yawatahama, Japan, in Tacoma, Washington, where he 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 (Ehime Prefecture), where he first entered the business is the Japanese word for "store").
As part of the internment of Japanese Americans following the entry of the United States into World War II, Moriguchi and his family were sent to the Tule Lake Internment Camp in 1942. Upon their release, they moved to Seattle and set up shop on S. Main Street in the International District.
Uwajimaya, Inc. operates as a specialty Asian food and gift retailer and wholesaler. Uwajimaya's three retail supermarkets offer food and non-food items imported from Japan, China, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Mexico, and Indonesia. The company's retail outlets, which enjoy recognition as tourist attractions, are located in Seattle, Washington, a suburb of Seattle called Bellevue, Washington, and in Beaverton, Oregon, a community outside Portland. Each of the company's stores is patterned after the flagship store in Seattle's International District: a massive, 60,000-square-foot emporium outfitted with authentic Japanese architectural features. Inside the stores, there are several specialty departments complementing the grocery department, which stocks numerous types of noodles, soy sauces, rice, sushi ingredients, Asian beers and sake, as well as a host of other products ranging from staple foods to exotic fare. The stores also include a seafood department with live fish and shellfish tanks, a meat department, a produce department, a delicatessen department, and a gift department. In addition, Uwajimaya operates as a wholesaler through a division called Seasia, which imports thousands of items used by the company's three stores and other retailers, restaurants, and supermarkets. Uwajimaya is owned and operated by the Moriguchi family.
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 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, and expanded in 1978 adding more than half again its original size. 1978 also saw the opening of the Bellevue Uwajimaya.
In 1991, Tokyo-based Kinokuniya Bookstore opened its first Seattle location on the second floor of the Seattle store selling primarily Japanese language 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 quite controversial within the community, especially some local small-business owners, many of whom 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 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, bank, restaurant, optician, beauty salon, 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, died in 2002.
In 2008, Uwajimaya anchored a redevelopment proposal, similar to the Uwajimaya Village, for Portland's Old Town/Chinatown.
Uwajimaya opened a new location in Renton, Washington on July 1, 2009is a family-owned supermarket chain based in Seattle, Washington, selling mainly Asian food—with an emphasis on Japanese—though it also stocks Western staples. The flagship store is in Seattle's Chinatown/International District with three other stores in Beaverton, Oregon, Bellevue, Washington and Renton, Washington. Until the late 1980s there was another store near the Westfield Southcenter mall in Tukwila, Washington. Its corporate headquarters is in Seattle's Industrial District.
By the mid-1990s, Uwajimaya was an enterprise whose multi-faceted vibrancy belied its origins as a business run from the back of a pick-up truck. The company ranked as the largest Asian food retailer in the United States, producing annual sales hovering around $50 million. The company employed 200 full-time workers and 100 part-time workers, many of whom were fluent in several languages. Although the company's retail operations grabbed most of the public's attention, Uwajimaya's wholesale operations served as an indispensable contributor to the company's success. Seasia, which accounted for roughly half of the company's sales, imported more than 3,500 food items and 1,200 non-food items, dealing with goods from Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
During the latter half of the 1990s, Uwajimaya busied itself with expansion, taking on the biggest projects in its history. After a three-year search for a suitable location in the Portland, Oregon, area, the company completed construction of its first out-of-state store at the end of 1997. In December, Uwajimaya celebrated the opening of its store in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland. At roughly the same time of the Beaverton opening, preparations were underway for the grandest project to bear the Uwajimaya name.
On November 22, 2000, residents in the Puget Sound region were treated to the grand opening of the signature Uwajimaya property: Uwajimaya Village. The new development included a new store located across the street from the site originally occupied in 1970. The new flagship store measured 60,000
Statistics:
Private Company
Incorporated: 1962
Employees: 650
Sales: $100 million (2002 est.)
NAIC: 445110 Supermarkets and Other Grocery (Except Convenience) Stores
Key Dates:
1928: Fujimatsu Moriguchi begins selling fish cakes from the back of his pick-up truck.
1962: The company operates a kiosk at the World's Fair hosted by Seattle; Fujimatsu Moriguchi dies and his heirs and wife Sadako continue to operate the family business.
1966: Seasia, Uwajimaya's wholesale division, is formed.
1970: A new flagship store is opened in Seattle's International District.
1978: Uwajimaya's second store, located in Bellevue, Washington, is opened.
1997: Uwajimaya's first out-of-state store, located in Beaverton, Oregon, is opened.
2000: Uwajimaya Village, featuring a new store and a housing complex, opens in November.
2002: Sadako Moriguchi dies. square feet, 56 percent larger than its predecessor. Inside, the haphazard layout of the previous store--a maze engendered by 30 years of remodeling projects--was replaced by an efficient and attractive floor design that impressed supermarket industry observers. Outside, among numerous other features, stood a 58,000-pound granite lantern imported from China. The store was one part of the $35-million Uwajimaya Village project. The company also constructed retail space for complementary businesses and constructed a residential development that included 176 apartment units, with monthly rents ranging from $880 for a studio apartment to $2,600 for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit.
In 2002, as Uwajimaya's 75th anniversary approached, the company marked the passing of an era. In the summer, Sadako Tsutakawa Moriguchi died of Alzheimer's complications at the age of 94. Although the loss of the Moriguchi matriarch was profound, the future resilience of the company was ensured by the strength of the legacy she left behind. Tomio Moriguchi, who served as chief executive officer of Uwajimaya, was one of six of her children who held executive positions within the company. Together, the Moriguchi family held fast to business principles displayed by their parents, the company's founders. Looking ahead, the company declared its intent to add to its three-store retail operation, although no specific time or location was revealed. Once the company did expand, however, there was every expectation that the new addition would be as successful as its predecessors, adding further to the luster that described Uwajimaya's operations.
Address:
4601 6th Avenue South
Seattle, Washington 98108
U.S.A.
As part of the internment of Japanese Americans following the entry of the United States into World War II, Moriguchi and his family were sent to the Tule Lake Internment Camp in 1942. Upon their release, they moved to Seattle and set up shop on S. Main Street in the International District.
Uwajimaya, Inc. operates as a specialty Asian food and gift retailer and wholesaler. Uwajimaya's three retail supermarkets offer food and non-food items imported from Japan, China, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Mexico, and Indonesia. The company's retail outlets, which enjoy recognition as tourist attractions, are located in Seattle, Washington, a suburb of Seattle called Bellevue, Washington, and in Beaverton, Oregon, a community outside Portland. Each of the company's stores is patterned after the flagship store in Seattle's International District: a massive, 60,000-square-foot emporium outfitted with authentic Japanese architectural features. Inside the stores, there are several specialty departments complementing the grocery department, which stocks numerous types of noodles, soy sauces, rice, sushi ingredients, Asian beers and sake, as well as a host of other products ranging from staple foods to exotic fare. The stores also include a seafood department with live fish and shellfish tanks, a meat department, a produce department, a delicatessen department, and a gift department. In addition, Uwajimaya operates as a wholesaler through a division called Seasia, which imports thousands of items used by the company's three stores and other retailers, restaurants, and supermarkets. Uwajimaya is owned and operated by the Moriguchi family.
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 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, and expanded in 1978 adding more than half again its original size. 1978 also saw the opening of the Bellevue Uwajimaya.
In 1991, Tokyo-based Kinokuniya Bookstore opened its first Seattle location on the second floor of the Seattle store selling primarily Japanese language 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 quite controversial within the community, especially some local small-business owners, many of whom 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 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, bank, restaurant, optician, beauty salon, 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, died in 2002.
In 2008, Uwajimaya anchored a redevelopment proposal, similar to the Uwajimaya Village, for Portland's Old Town/Chinatown.
Uwajimaya opened a new location in Renton, Washington on July 1, 2009is a family-owned supermarket chain based in Seattle, Washington, selling mainly Asian food—with an emphasis on Japanese—though it also stocks Western staples. The flagship store is in Seattle's Chinatown/International District with three other stores in Beaverton, Oregon, Bellevue, Washington and Renton, Washington. Until the late 1980s there was another store near the Westfield Southcenter mall in Tukwila, Washington. Its corporate headquarters is in Seattle's Industrial District.
By the mid-1990s, Uwajimaya was an enterprise whose multi-faceted vibrancy belied its origins as a business run from the back of a pick-up truck. The company ranked as the largest Asian food retailer in the United States, producing annual sales hovering around $50 million. The company employed 200 full-time workers and 100 part-time workers, many of whom were fluent in several languages. Although the company's retail operations grabbed most of the public's attention, Uwajimaya's wholesale operations served as an indispensable contributor to the company's success. Seasia, which accounted for roughly half of the company's sales, imported more than 3,500 food items and 1,200 non-food items, dealing with goods from Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
During the latter half of the 1990s, Uwajimaya busied itself with expansion, taking on the biggest projects in its history. After a three-year search for a suitable location in the Portland, Oregon, area, the company completed construction of its first out-of-state store at the end of 1997. In December, Uwajimaya celebrated the opening of its store in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland. At roughly the same time of the Beaverton opening, preparations were underway for the grandest project to bear the Uwajimaya name.
On November 22, 2000, residents in the Puget Sound region were treated to the grand opening of the signature Uwajimaya property: Uwajimaya Village. The new development included a new store located across the street from the site originally occupied in 1970. The new flagship store measured 60,000
Statistics:
Private Company
Incorporated: 1962
Employees: 650
Sales: $100 million (2002 est.)
NAIC: 445110 Supermarkets and Other Grocery (Except Convenience) Stores
Key Dates:
1928: Fujimatsu Moriguchi begins selling fish cakes from the back of his pick-up truck.
1962: The company operates a kiosk at the World's Fair hosted by Seattle; Fujimatsu Moriguchi dies and his heirs and wife Sadako continue to operate the family business.
1966: Seasia, Uwajimaya's wholesale division, is formed.
1970: A new flagship store is opened in Seattle's International District.
1978: Uwajimaya's second store, located in Bellevue, Washington, is opened.
1997: Uwajimaya's first out-of-state store, located in Beaverton, Oregon, is opened.
2000: Uwajimaya Village, featuring a new store and a housing complex, opens in November.
2002: Sadako Moriguchi dies. square feet, 56 percent larger than its predecessor. Inside, the haphazard layout of the previous store--a maze engendered by 30 years of remodeling projects--was replaced by an efficient and attractive floor design that impressed supermarket industry observers. Outside, among numerous other features, stood a 58,000-pound granite lantern imported from China. The store was one part of the $35-million Uwajimaya Village project. The company also constructed retail space for complementary businesses and constructed a residential development that included 176 apartment units, with monthly rents ranging from $880 for a studio apartment to $2,600 for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit.
In 2002, as Uwajimaya's 75th anniversary approached, the company marked the passing of an era. In the summer, Sadako Tsutakawa Moriguchi died of Alzheimer's complications at the age of 94. Although the loss of the Moriguchi matriarch was profound, the future resilience of the company was ensured by the strength of the legacy she left behind. Tomio Moriguchi, who served as chief executive officer of Uwajimaya, was one of six of her children who held executive positions within the company. Together, the Moriguchi family held fast to business principles displayed by their parents, the company's founders. Looking ahead, the company declared its intent to add to its three-store retail operation, although no specific time or location was revealed. Once the company did expand, however, there was every expectation that the new addition would be as successful as its predecessors, adding further to the luster that described Uwajimaya's operations.
Address:
4601 6th Avenue South
Seattle, Washington 98108
U.S.A.