"Permanent Walking Tour to Feature Historic, Culturally Significant SF Japantown Landmarks"
The San Francisco Japantown Japanese American History Walk — a public project led by the JCCCNC and set to be completed by the end of this year — will be a permanent display featuring historically and culturally significant landmarks in the community.
“We’re trying to tell the story of Japantown in a way that will invite people to want to learn more,” says JCCCNC Executive Director Paul Osaki.
Proposition 40 — the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act of 2002 — allocated $267.5 million for historical and cultural resource projects.
One million dollars of this money was appointed by former Governor Gray Davis to support capital cultural preservation projects in California’s three remaining Japantowns — Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose.
In San Francisco, an open bid process was conducted to determine how best to utilize its $300,000 share of the funds.
NDD Creative, aka Naganuma Design and Direction (NDD), was selected as the project team.
Although the original plan consisted of improvements to the Buchanan Mall, it was later redesigned to include the entire Japantown.
This cultural heritage tourism program — the first of its kind in San Francisco’s Japantown — will take visitors on a self-guided walking tour, led by informative plaques and interpretive signage.
The official tour begins in the Peace Plaza and continues to more than a dozen Japantown locations. These include Benkyodo manju shop, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year; religious organizations such as Konko Church and Christ United Presbyterian Church; and historically significant sites such as Kinmon Gakuen, which served as a processing center during World War II when all “persons of Japanese ancestry” residing on the West Coast were forcibly interned in concentration camps.
While school and other groups may opt to take the full tour, it will also be accessible to the casual visitor, who may want to visit just a few plaques or signs at a time.
Another key part of the project will be a large, approximately 14 by 14-foot Japanese folding fan (sensu). This three-dimensional icon will be located on the Webster Street traffic median, between Post Street and Geary Boulevard.
“It’s a gateway, it’s to designate Japantown,” explains Osaki. “As it is right now, people drive by Geary corridor, or they drive up Webster Street on their way to the Marina, but there’s nothing that really says ‘This is Japantown.’”
Osaki says the fan symbol is “clearly a Japanese fan, it’s clearly identifiable, and it will be really aesthetically beautiful.”
The project is currently going through the process of being approved by the owners of the properties on the tour. Since the project is being funded by bond money, the signage and plaques must be displayed for at least 20 years.
For the JCCCNC, the project makes complete sense.
“It’s a way of furthering our mission to be able to continue to educate the broader community about the Japanese, Japanese American community,” says Osaki, “as well as help culturally preserve our history and our stories here in Japantown.”
He hopes that the project will be another way to draw people to the area, and provide them with a new, educational Japantown experience.
“It’ll be the first time that people can come to Japantown and do more than just shop, eat and drink. They’ll actually be able to come and learn about our historic community and, hopefully, leave a little differently than when they came.”