<Begin Segment 5>

SF: I want to go back to a formal institution in the community. The Nippon Kan Hall.

FM: Yes.

SF: And since that was such an important thing. Tell us about that.

FM: Yeah. I'd forgotten -- I should have checked the Japanese history of the community more closely, but in the early 1900s, let's say around 1905 there are accounts of the plays and shibai and things of this kind. Entertainment being put on, and the facility that is referred to is the basement of a hotel or some area large enough to hold an audience. But a rather limited facility compared to what in a sense might have been wanted for activities of this kind. So it was rather common for the Japanese people in the early 1900s, even before the family organizations got well established, for the Japanese community members to get together for festivities, entertainment or activities of one kind or another. Poetry groups, for example, were not uncommon, even in those days. The haiku and tanka poetry groups. And whatever activity that they might have for example, photography. If they wanted to have a show or whatever, they would have some kind of group assembly and then the show and the community members would assemble to observe or see this performance, whatever it might be. And as I say, shibai, the entertainment activity was one of the most common types of things. Now then, it became apparent that a hall of some kind was needed because of the frequency of these activities of this kind which called for a hall where fair sized audiences could assemble. And the facilities that were being used, such as the basements of hotels and such were un, obviously inadequate. So, I don't know just exactly when or how, but Nippon Kan Hall became available to the Japanese community and, around 1910 then, they take over this facility as a place of meeting of, for these activities that I referred to. This building was located on Maynard and Washington Street, right across the street or fairly close by was the old Japanese Baptist church. And I can remember that that church was right near. Now the Baptist church was perhaps the earliest of the Japanese Christian churches to be established in the late 1890s. As I recall the first Japanese Christian minister came and established that church. So, in a sense, it became an area around Maynard and Washington, became a kind of community center type of situation. At that time, also as I think I've mentioned, the Japanese community residences had climbed up the hill because this, Maynard and Washington was on, high above the hill over the business district, which was below. And the residential district then goes eastward along Washington up towards 10th and 12th and even up towards 14th, up from where the Nippon Kan Hall is. Anyway, it was very easy then for the residents who were already congregated in that area to assemble at Nippon Kan Hall for whatever event was held. Incidentally, skid row was skid road, where some of the Japanese residents still were was down the hill from Nippon Kan Hall, and the other residents were up the hill so to speak. So it was a kind of focal point for drawing the people together. Also, the other thing I should mention is that, that the center of the Japanese business district, might be said was at Maynard, 6th and Main Street. And 6th and Main Street was just block, another block down. That's the center of the business district and that's however, down the hill from where Nippon Kan Hall was. So ecologically, in terms of the geographical location, it was ideal for the Japanese community hall to be located. Okay, so in 1910 on, why all the meetings come to be held at Nippon Kan Hall, or if not all, the main activities take place there.

SF: Who, who manages the Nippon Kan and...?

FM: That I don't. You know curiously, I don't know who it was. It was owned as a hotel. I think there were hotel rooms in the upper, upper deck of this building, but the lower area is totally used as Nippon Kan Hall. So, somebody owned the building or yeah, leased it. And was doing -- I can't tell you who it was. But it was one of the hotel buildings, which, the, as you know, it's still there. That was existing from about 1910 on. And once that building got established, then the Japanese Association which becomes pretty active by this time becomes one of the main users of the, of that building for its various assemblies, that is public assemblies. The Japanese Association had its headquarters in the building which is on Jackson and Maynard. Two blocks down from, and it's still there, you know, the JACL has it's offices in that building. But Japan, the Japanese Association then has its assemblies up on the Nippon Kan Hall, and its business meetings at this, at their offices down on Jackson and Maynard. Japanese Association has various kinds of... Well the Japanese community, the Japanese society in Japan has many festivals and annual events that they carry on and the Japanese community often celebrated certain ones of these. In addition, in addition to the Japanese Association, the community had a very strong prefectural organizations as you know. The Hiroshima Kenjinkai, the Okayama Kenjinkai, the Yamaguchi Kenjinkai and so on, and so on. And these organizations also would have their assemblage functions carried on at Nippon Kan Hall. But one of the other prime users was the Japanese Language School, where, at the time I was going in the 1920s there probably were anywhere from 700 to over 1,000 kids at any given time attending the school and if you have a thousand kids involved why, there are all these families that are also sending their kids to the school who in turn would be involved, and if they had any kind of assemblies function it would be held at the Nippon Kan Hall. And, so, Nippon Kan Hall also, there the typical kinds of family aspirations that were involved, musical events -- they wanted their kids to be pianists or vocalists or whatever. And every now and then, even these family activities would be carried on at Nippon Kan Hall, if they had some child they wanted to show as a performer in front of the larger community. In that sense then, the Nippon Kan Hall became a very central, focal point of this organizational activity that I've talked about is rather typical of the Seattle Japanese community.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.