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Uwajimaya to open new store in Tacoma, returning to its roots
Soon, Uwajimaya will be opening a new location in Tacoma. FOX 13's Shirah Matsuzawa takes a closer look behind the store and why the new store holds special significance.
SEATTLE - Next year, Uwajimaya will return to Tacoma, where the store got its start nearly 100 years ago.
FOX 13 talked with Uwajimaya’s CEO and President, Denise Moriguchi about the store’s history and how it feels as they get ready to return to their roots. The store made that announcement on social media last month.
Before becoming President of the company, Moriguchi grew up working in the store, getting grocery carts and helping bag groceries during the holidays. What some don’t realize is, her family’s history is weaved within every aisle of the store.
What they're saying:
"Uwajimaya was started by my grandparents almost 100 years ago in Tacoma," Moriguchi said. They opened it in 1928. "My grandfather came here when a lot of Japanese laborers were coming to the area and there were like fishing camps, mining camps, logging camps…and he would drive out to where they were and sell them Japanese staples, and his famous product fish cakes, which he learned how to make in the town of Uwajima and ‘ya’ means store so that’s how the company got its name ‘Uwajimaya," Moriguchi said.
Denise Moriguchi's family photo archive
The backstory:
Her grandparents, Fujimatsu and Sadako Moriguchi, later opened a brick-and-mortar store in Tacoma, which they ran until the 1940’s.
Then WWII happened, and her grandparents were forced to close the store and were sent to an incarceration camp.
"My grandmother never really talked about her time in the incarceration camp the war. I would ask a few questions learning things in school and she would just silently maybe say one or two things and then change the subject so, I think it’s a sore subject for a lot of people and something she didn’t want to relive," Moriguchi said.
Uwajimaya in Tacoma, Washington
"They lost everything, their business and after the war they restarted, but they restarted in Seattle," Moriguchi said.
Now, almost 100 years later, Uwajimaya will have a homecoming of sorts as it returns to Tacoma, where the former Hobby Lobby on 23rd street once stood.
They’re honoring their past, while growing their future. "It’s exciting, I feel like we get to honor the legacy of my grandparents and return to our roots," Moriguchi said.
They hope to have the new store open in Tacoma in the first half of 2027. They’re also opening another location in Issaquah next year as well.
Inside Uwajimaya in Tacoma, Washington
Moriguchi told FOX 13, this has helped her, along with many in the community, learn more about Japanese history in Tacoma because sometimes when the buildings are gone, the history gets forgotten.
She also hopes people remember what happened in the past as we navigate the world today.
"There’s so much going on in the world right now with ICE and immigration and just reminding ourselves with the dark history we had and trying to learn from it and recognize today that some of what’s going on we don’t want to repeat," Moriguchi said.
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