Meet Little Tokyo🎌Jerry Fukui and Eric Tanaka of Fukui Mortuary

When did you get your start in Little Tokyo?
Gerald Fukui: Well, my great grandfather and his family came to Los Angeles by way of Seattle around the end of World War I and settled the family in the Boyle Heights area. At that time, Fukui Mortuary was owned by a Jewish family and obviously, because the majority of their clients were the surrounding Japanese, and he didn’t know the language or customs, so he hired my great grandfather and two other Japanese help assist him. Somewhere down the line, this gentleman either retired, passed away or decided to sell the business to my great grandfather. In fact this is the original mortuary that was here back before the turn of the century. It was initially called the “Japanese Undertaking Company” and then somewhere in the thirties it switched to “Fukui Mortuary”, named after my family. My father, because he was fluent in Japanese served in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II and was sent to Japan as part of the Occupational Forces until 1949 upon which time his father, Hitoshi said, come back to LA and help run the business. After I received my bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences at USC in 1975, I spent a year at Woodbury Business College and then went from part time to full time working at the mortuary.

Eric Tanaka: My involvement in Little Tokyo is definitely through the mortuary and through Jerry. I graduated in 2003 and I was kind of letting him know how hard the market was during that time. And so he asked me to just try out the business for a year. And I tried it out for a year and now it's turned into 16 years that I have been serving the community through my work at the Fukui mortuary. I am definitely not at the Jerry level, he is involved in so many committees, and I haven’t made that step as of yet but with Jerry’s guidance I know I am going to eventually.

Mortuary is a place a lot of people don’t think about as a 9-5 workplace but at Fukui you had a chance to experience a lot of traditions and meet many people. Do you have any fond recollections of getting to experience some of these traditional funeral ceremonies?
GF: Well, we have done many kinds of ceremonies, some are 4 hours or longer, some just 15 minutes long, we’ve directed many traditional ceremonies and conventional services. But I think what stands out the most, well, it’s the levity, those things that were kind of funny or unexpected. Like one time a minister was giving the sermon and the widow was sitting there and the husband’s lying in the casket and then the priest says, “He was such a great man. He had to have been such a great man for having lived with his wife.” And you’re just thinking, “Wait. What did he just say?”
Another service I recall which was quite memorable. We have a tradition that the minister meets the casket at the curbside and escorts the casket along with the pallbearers in procession into the church. After which, we would set the casket and then the minister, would have the opening words, the invocation, and then maybe a hymn. So, one time I'm out on the curbside with the pallbearers waiting for the minister to come and escort us in. I am thinking, “It's getting kind of late,” and then I hear ‘Amazing Grace’ and I realize ”Oh no, he forgot to come out and get the casket”. You should have seen his face when we brought the casket in!

ET: So everything I learned from this business, honestly, I never expected myself to get into this business because I was a marketing major. I was thinking about getting into retail advertising, or marketing. So everything that I had learned through Jerry and the staff at Fukui Mortuary, it was all interesting to me because it was all new. For example just learning the customs with each minister, each church, each temple. So learning about these different Japanese words and customs that that families would use when a loved one passed, that was all new. For me to learn about all those different traditions that they did kept me interested in the work. That's why even to this day, sometimes I'll do a service that I've never kind of experienced even though I've been there for 16 years. That's because each family and their needs is different. And now I have grown to love doing this work in terms of helping and serving our community and our families.

If someone was coming to Little Tokyo for their first time to visit and they didn't have much time to spend in the neighborhood what do you recommend they do?
GF: If they could come during the summer, many of the Nisei Week festival events, such as the Grand Parade, Plaza Festival, Gyoza Eating Contest, Tanabata Festival or Street Ondo Dancing are really great. It’s a younger, different, crowd now. I’ve been involved with Nisei Week since the mid 70’s and we talk about sustainability in our neighborhood not only for Nisei Week but for all Little Tokyo Organizations. At Fukui Mortuary we deal with this when someone passes away, so it's important for us to have some type of relationship not only with the community but especially with the millennials. It's a millennials’ parents that are going to be passing away and millennials that will be carrying on our community. And so, for my business and the community, it's very important that we also have that relationship between generations so that they know we're here for them and that we will support them. Otherwise they would say, “Why should we support Fukui? Or Jerry?”. So I am really glad to support these organizations, especially Kizuna. These younger people, like Randy Masada, Kristin Fukushima or Todd Odagawa are our future.

ET: The Japanese American National Museum (JANM). I've been there quite a few times because I know my grandfather and my mom and the rest of my family really support that institution. If my friends ever asked, I would say JANM. That'd be one thing I would definitely recommend. Also a lot of our clients go to Rafu Bussan in Honda Plaza which has still carries traditional Japanese goods, so that’s another good place.

What makes Little Tokyo different from other
neighborhoods?
JF: Well, there are lots of Obons and other cultural events in OC, San Fernando, San Gabriel, Pasadena, West LA, Venice and Gardena so a lot of the people are saying,”Why should I go all the way downtown to see Nisei Week? I could just go to another obon or Japanese cultural event closer to me. It’s this that is affecting us from keeping up the attendance for Nisei Week or other cultural events sponsored by JACCC, LTCC or many others. What I think makes us truly unique, is that we're still the biggest Japantown, we have the longest running ethnic parade in the United States and we are the hub of the J/A and Japanese Community. We have JANM, LTSC, Go For Broke, JACCC and many more all within the Little Tokyo area. So, we have all that within our community and that's what sets us apart. We’re a diverse and eclectic community that's moving forward.

ET: I mean a lot of our community’s history came out of Little Tokyo. I know a lot of Japanese have moved away from Little Tokyo and Boyle Heights. Many of them now live in Orange County or South Bay. The demographics have changed a lot, it’s not just Japanese anymore. If you go to Ktown it’s Koreans but here in J-town it’s not just Japanese. I thought it was going to hurt J-town more because a lot of Japanese are moving away but I noticed a shift of people that are coming back. Since I started at 2003 up to right now Little Tokyo just seems to be thriving and there’s so many people walking around. It feels like an intersection for many different cultures and people.

What legacy do you hope to pass on with Fukui Mortuary?
And what is your hope for Little Tokyo?
GF: Well, Little Tokyo is going to change. It's been changing ever since I've been here. It's going to change in the future but I hope it still keeps that, that taste, that flavor of what I see my great grandfather and grandfather wanted to spread. The heritage and the culture that sets us apart. And for Little Tokyo… well I have matured now, when I was younger I volunteered for many organizations as more of an obligation. I was like, “I don’t want to be on this” but I felt obligated. Back then I was still young and just wanted to do my thing, like being with friends, fishing, camping, skiing, or doing what any young adult wants to do. It's amazing how my attitude has changed. Because I know now, for example, if anything ever happened to JACCC we would lose so much of our community’s identity. So, being involved in these organizations like JACCC, LTSC, JAO, Nisei Week and Kizuna in particular, makes me realize how important it is to support the millennials.As I said earlier, they are our future. Our future board members, supporters and leaders. We need to keep nurturing and grooming the millennials and younger generations and support the organizations that are their future.

ET: For me it’s passing down the traditions that I’ve learned from Jerry and there are traditions that I want to pass to the future generations that take over after me. We’ve been serving the community for over a hundred years now since we first started in 1918. And I’m hoping that we can continue to serve our community for another hundred years. That we will be able to pass down history to the next of kin, and teach them how to not only serve the community but also all to remember the traditions that we've learned throughout the years through our long history here.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Gerald Fukui (L) and Eric Tanaka (R) Owners of Fukui Mortuary (213) 626-0441 707 E Temple Street Los Angeles, CA 90012

Gerald Fukui (L) and Eric Tanaka (R)
Owners of Fukui Mortuary
(213) 626-0441
707 E Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012