SALT LAKE CITY – In a hidden area of downtown Salt Lake City behind the Salt Palace, one block long Japantown Street comes alive to the sounds of taiko drums and Japanese shakuhachi bamboo flutes every spring.
People flock to the streets to visit Nihon Matsuri, enjoy traditional Japanese music and dancing, try delicious Japanese food, and browse the vendors.
This weekend’s festival is online due to COVID-19.
Instead, construction noise from future apartment and hotel complexes entered the area around Japantown Street on Friday.
Without the festival there isn’t much to do or see on the street. But it used to be not like the retired 3rd District Court judge Raymond Uno remembers.
“Whenever we wanted to have a meeting or do something, we’d say, ‘I’ll meet you in J-Town,'” recalled Judge Uno. “And everyone knew where J-Town was because everyone gathered there.”
J-Town used to be a bustling, busy area that stretched across city blocks and included apartment buildings, restaurants, shops, pool halls, banks, and other businesses.
That is, until the Salt Palace Convention Center hit the market in the 1960s.
“When they built the Salt Palace and destroyed Japantown, I was really a little annoyed,” said Judge Uno. “Because there was no place for the Japanese, because they just took the heart of the church away.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Historical photos of SLC’s “Japantown”
The construction of the Salt Palace tore Japantown into a single block of 100 South. State Senator Jani Iwamoto said all but two stores have been closed. The two surviving businesses moved to other neighborhoods, and only one – the Japanese Sage Market at 1515 S Main Street – remains today.
Only three buildings connected to Japantown occupy the street.
The Japanese Church of Christ, built in 1924, is still standing. The Salt Lake Buddhist Temple is across the street at the other end of Japantown Street. Next to it is another Buddhist temple building in Salt Lake that houses the temple’s bookstore, Lumbini’s Garden.
Otherwise, the street is lined with the concrete loading docks for the Salt Palace. A new, multi-story apartment building is also currently being built on the street, although Senator Iwamoto said the back of the apartment building faces Japantown Street.
It’s not exactly a place where the church gathers.
“They just want this to be open because this is a time when we can share our cultures with everyone,” Iwamoto said.
She sits on the Japanese Community Preservation Committee (JCPC). As of around 2008, she said, they began redesigning the area.
First the street was renamed Japantown Street. The Salt Palace changed some of its loading dock gates to Japanese-inspired metal designs and installed Japanese-style roof tiles on the concrete wall along the sidewalk. A small Japanese garden was laid out between the Salt Palace and the Japanese Church of Christ.
Now you are ready for the next step in revitalizing the area.
“Now it’s really great because we’re looking to the future,” said Iwamoto.
J-Town could sort of come back.
“It’s a way to remember it, but then look ahead,” said Iwamoto. “And that is the most important.”
Plans presented to the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency show a colorful and distinctive Japantown Street with cherry blossom trees, historical markings, a large metal origami crane sculpture, new lighting, Japanese-style design elements, and pedestrian walkways.
There are also plans for festival layouts.
“One of the things we’re working on with the city as part of this plan is to make this street much more conducive to festivals,” said Rolen Yoshinaga, who is with Iwamoto at the JCPC.
He said Japantown Street was dangerous because trucks were constantly pulling into the Salt Palace loading docks and cars were using the street as a quick shortcut. This coupled with the width makes it difficult for pedestrians to cross.
Yoshinaga talked about wanting to address the safety issues first before including the fun design elements.
He said they did not yet have a timeline to complete the three-phase plan.
The JCPC will seek public and private partnerships, community support and funding to help make these designs a reality. Yoshinaga pointed out that funding will be a major challenge.
But having the renders is a big step, he said, because they have a vision.
“At some point it will be a very recognizable place,” he said. “Yes,” Iwamoto repeated. “We want it to be a place – a welcoming place – for the entire state, you know. And I think it will be.”
A place where the Japanese community can gather again, just as Judge Uno remembers.
“Although we don’t have everything we want, there is at least something,” said Judge Uno, adding, “We can say, ‘Hey! This is Japantown.'”
Renderings of the project: (Courtesy GSBS Architects)
GSBS Architects
Renderings of “Japantown” in Salt Lake City
Comments are closed.