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SH: We've now entered the stage area, or the riser area. Again, this was built later, it wasn't part of the original plans of the building, but a need arose where they needed to kind of have a stage. And so in the years following that, probably in the '80s, the Doshi Kai organization, the fellows used to like to get together and play poker. So our handyman, Harry Makino, built a poker table, and there was usually about eight fellows that came in every other week and got together and played some poker. At the same time, you play cards here, you get hungry, so Harry kind of created a mini kitchen up here. We had a stove, we had the running sink and everything, and he put it all together and it was a very nice, very comfortable getaway spot for a lot of the guys.

DG: So do you think this was always sort of backstage, or was it also used as a classroom?

SH: I can't recall. As far as myself, I know the stage was here during the '80s, '70s, and probably even back in the late '50s, early '60s, when I was attending here. So they may have had this area as another classroom, maybe for, to separate, possibly, the older kids. I know they had a small group, maybe, of about six or eight older students, they were probably high school, that practiced kanji, the brush painting, Japanese calligraphy, and so they may have been the ones that meet up here. I'm just guessing at that.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.