Shig Hirai: Decades of Dedication to the Japanese Foodscape in Vancouver

Yuna Sato

Japanese food is seemingly ubiquitous in Vancouver. Whether you are after sake, snacks, shishito peppers, simple sushi rolls, or a high-end omakase experience, we are spoiled with an abundance of options across the city. However, this was not the case until a few decades ago. Shigeru (Shig) Hirai is someone who played an integral role in introducing all of these items, and more, across British Columbia. This text aims to analyze the sociocultural impact that Shig Hirai and his businesses had in introducing and disseminating Japanese food across British Columbia and his contributions in developing the Japanese migrant marketplace of Vancouver.

Shig Hirai is a second generation Japanese Canadian, born in 1937 and raised on Powell Street/パウエル街 (Paueru-Gai), the heart of Vancouver’s Japanese Canadian community with the largest concentration of Nikkei-jin (people of Japanese descent). He was interned at Lemon Creek during the Second World War and was later deported to Japan, where he learned to speak Japanese [1]. He returned to the Powell Street community (also known as Japantown or Little Tokyo) 8 years later in 1954 [2]. In a 2004 interview, Hirai speaks about the drastic impact that internment had on Japantown and recalls how many Japanese people were unable to buy back their confiscated property, forcing them to relocate elsewhere. This marked the end of an era for Japantown; Japanese Canadians dispersed across the country and Japantown was no longer the distinct and undeniable hub that it was before the war. Still, a few people such as Hirai were able to buy back property and were determined to stay [3].

Hirai’s business ventures began in 1969 when he opened Maneki Japanese Restaurant at 342 East Hastings Street, one of the first Japanese restaurants in Vancouver [4]. As such, Hirai and Maneki became a gateway for food, practices, and people from Japan to Vancouver. The prime example of this is Hidekazu Tojo and his creations. Hirai provided a number of chefs, including Tojo, with the opportunity to move across the Pacific when he sponsored and hired them as chefs at Maneki [5]. Tojo is the creator of the inside-out style of sushi rolls (rice on the outermost layer instead of seaweed), including the California roll and B.C. roll. His culturally adapted creations are distinct from Japanese sushi, utilizing new presentation techniques and local B.C. ingredients to appeal to Western customers who were often taken aback by unfamiliar raw fish and the look of nori [6]. If it was not for Hirai and his restaurant Maneki, the iconic California roll and other Western-style sushi rolls featured on menus across Vancouver (and all over the world) may not have existed. Tojo’s inventions are now key items on many, if not most Japanese/sushi restaurants in the Western Hemisphere, and they played an important role in bringing sushi to its widespread popularity.

Hirai eventually sold the restaurant and opened Fujiya, one of Vancouver’s oldest Japanese grocery stores, on Powell Street in 1977 [7]. Fujiya remains a popular store that almost every Japanese Vancouverite has heard of, owned and operated by Hirai to this day. Additionally, Hirai states that 90% of his customers are white, proving that his store acts as a cultural bridge between non-Japanese Canadians and Japan [8]. Fujiya became a local favourite for its fresh fish, homemade bentos, and variety of Japanese groceries and goods. In the decades that followed, Fujiya saw massive success and moved to a new location in Japantown and even opened additional locations across Vancouver and in Victoria [9]. Hirai and Fujiya were consistently featured in newspaper and magazine articles for both Canadian and Japanese publications from the 1970s up until recently, owing to the store’s popularity and Hirai’s status as a respected business owner who fosters Japanese Canadian connections through food. Thus, while Fujiya alone has not been able to revive the pre-war cultural vitality of Japantown, the store has been cemented as an integral institution for the Japanese community in Vancouver and other locals seeking a taste of Japan.

Another store that was founded and still run by Hirai is Hi Genki, a restaurant at the Robert Nimi Seniors Centre at Nikkei Place that serves home-style Japanese cuisine to seniors and the local community. Hirai speaks of Hi Genki as more of a passion project and volunteer work than a business venture, as he keeps prices low to ensure that it is accessible for Nikkei seniors who previously lacked access to culturally familiar meals [10]. He also discusses the wider cultural impact of Hi Genki in Burnaby, which has a large East Asian population, as the restaurant allows other members of the community to affordably access Japanese food including their many Chinese and Korean patrons [11].

In the book Migrant Marketplaces: Food and Italians in North and South America, author Elizabeth Zanoni discusses the rise of tipo italiano foods (Italian-style goods produced outside of Italy) due to their relative affordability compared to imports [12]. Similar to tipo italiano, Hirai says that he “take[s] Canadian foods and make them into Japanese foods”, referring to local ingredients such as fish and local produce. Using Canadian foods, he makes Japanese bentos at Fujiya and meals at his restaurants for Japanese and non-Japanese customers. Selling California rolls at Fujiya exemplifies how Hirai has fostered both Japanese-ness and Japanese Canadianness through food in Vancouver. The California roll is not Japanese sushi, and yet is a symbol of Japanese Canadian culture.

Shig Hirai made a variety of contributions to the Japanese Canadian migrant marketplace in Vancouver. While Japantown today is far from what it was in his childhood, Fujiya serves as a reminder of what it once was and acts as a symbol of the rich historical and ongoing Japanese and Canadian cultural interactions. Hirai has created invaluable bridges between Japan and Vancouver through food by creating and sharing both authentic Japanese and Japanese Canadian foods at accessible prices for all Vancouverites to enjoy.

References

[1] John Endo Greenway. “Fujiya: Celebrating 30 Years: Shig Hirai on Sushi, Sumo & Staying Healthy.” JCCA Bulletin, October 2007: 5.
[2] “An Interview with Shigeru Hirai.” Ningen Bunka: Bulletin of the School of Human Cultures, March 2004: 50.
[3] “An Interview with Shigeru Hirai”: 51.
[4] “Little Tokyo.” British Columbia’s Western Living, January 1978: 12.
[5] Isabella Kulkarni, “The Little-Known Immigrant History of the California Roll.” Food52, 2019.
[6] Kulkarni, “The Little-Known Immigrant History of the California Roll”: paragraph 12.
[7] Kaori Hirano. “My Business: Fujiya and Ocean Delight Seafood Ltd.” Coco Magazine, 2014: 16.
[8] “An Interview with Shigeru Hirai”: 52.
[9] Midori Seno. “Japanese Grocery Store Fujiya Original Location: Reopen in Downtown Vancouver.” Nikka Times (Toronto, ON), March 25, 1994: 16.
[10] Greenway, “Fujiya: Celebrating 30 Years: Shig Hirai on Sushi, Sumo & Staying Healthy”: 6.
[11] Greenway, “Fujiya: Celebrating 30 Years: Shig Hirai on Sushi, Sumo & Staying Healthy”: 6.
[12] Elizabeth Zanoni. Migrant Marketplaces: Food and Italians in North and South America. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2018.

Bibliography

“An Interview with Shigeru Hirai.” Ningen Bunka: Bulletin of the School of Human Cultures, March 2004. Courtesy of the Nikkei National Museum Shig and Akemi Hirai Collection, TD 1322.

Greenway, John Endo. “Fujiya: Celebrating 30 Years: Shig Hirai on Sushi, Sumo & Staying Healthy.” JCCA Bulletin, October 2007. Courtesy of the Nikkei National Museum Shig and Akemi Hirai Collection, TD 1322.

Hirano, Kaori. “My Business: Fujiya and Ocean Delight Seafood Ltd.” Coco Magazine, 2014. Courtesy of the Nikkei National Museum Shig and Akemi Hirai Collection, TD 1322.

Kulkarni, Isabella. “The Little-Known Immigrant History of the California Roll.” Food52, May 1, 2019. “Little Tokyo.” British Columbia’s Western Living, January 1978. Courtesy of the Nikkei
National Museum Shig and Akemi Hirai Collection, TD 1322.

Seno, Midori. “Japanese Grocery Store Fujiya Original Location: Reopen in Downtown Vancouver.” Nikka Times (Toronto, ON), March 25, 1994. Courtesy of the Nikkei National Museum Shig and Akemi Hirai Collection, TD 1322.

Zanoni, Elizabeth. Migrant Marketplaces: Food and Italians in North and South America. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2018.