The Tanaka family with others outside of their tailor shop and dry goods store in Hale‘iwa in the mid-1920s. Courtesy of Randal Tanaka Collection

Submitted by the North Shore Chamber of Commerce’s Historic Preservation Committee; working to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of historic Hale`iwa. Reprinted with permission.

The North Shore Chamber of Commerce, as part of its mission of historic preservation of significant sites in Hale‘iwa, recently installed a bronze plaque commemorating the Matsumoto Store building. Similar to seventeen other plaques that can now be found throughout Hale‘iwa, the plaque language depicts the architectural and entrepreneurial his­tory of the building.

The iconic Matsumoto Store in Hale‘iwa on O‘ahu’s North Shore, has been making history since 1951. For all but a few early years as a grocery store, its popularity grew as a result of a single sweet commodity…shave ice. Seventy-two years and forty flavors later, the name Matsumoto has become synonymous with shave ice and recognized far beyond the town of Hale‘iwa.

What makes the Matsumoto store one of the more unique buildings of old Hale‘iwa is that it is actually a tale of two families. It began with the arrival of Sego and Tayo Tanaka from Shikoku Is­land’s Ehime Prefecture in Japan at the turn of the century. The couple owned and operated a tailor shop and dry goods store in the wood frame build­ing constructed around 1904. When the Tanakas decided to return to Japan in the early 1920s, their son Kazuaki remained. He later married and he and his wife Shizuko continued to operate the dry goods store which became the K. Tanaka Store.

By late 1940, Kazuaki Tanaka had established himself as a successful Waialua businessman. He served as the head of the Waialua Japanese Society and was part of a group of prominent community leaders that invested in a modern multi-story de­partment store in Honolulu on the corner of King and Bethel streets. Called The House of Mitsukoshi, it carried the latest in Japanese home goods. It fea­tured a fire-proofed ground floor and the first escala­tor in the territory of Hawaii. Sadly, Kazuaki Tana­ka, along with other executives involved in the ven­ture, were interned at the outbreak of World War II. The Mitsukoshi property was seized by the fed­eral government in 1942, and the department store was converted into the headquarters for the Ameri­can USO. Shizuko continued to run the K. Tanaka Store until she and son Richard joined Kazuaki at the Crystal City Family Internment Camp in Texas in 1944. Kazuaki’s brother Masakazu stepped in to run the store and continued to manage it after the Tanaka family returned to Hawaii in 1945.

With a seemingly undaunted spirit and a flair for business, Kazuaki Tanaka went on to build The Esmond, Haleiwa’s first department store. Cele­brating its Grand Opening in November of 1950, the store featured dry goods, hardware, and gen­eral merchandise. Knowing of Mamoru and Helen Matsumoto’s dream of owning their own business, Kazuaki sold the K. Tanaka Store to them in 1951, forming a lasting bond between the two families.

Mamoru Matsumoto was born in Honomu on the Big Island, but his family returned to Hiroshima when he was just a toddler. Limited opportunities prompted him to leave Japan to find work in Ha­waii. He worked on the sugar plantation, the rail­road and as a salesman for the Sakai Store, the site of Pioneer Ace Hardware today. Through friends, he met and married a Hilo girl named Helen Ogi. They had three children, and by the time their young­est child Stanley was born in 1951, their dream of running their own business was about to come true thanks to Kazuaki Tanaka.

The Matsumotos began selling shave ice in their grocery store in 1956. Known as kakigori in Japan, shaved ice dates back over a thousand years as a popular sweet summer treat. With summer weather virtually, all year round in Hawaii, it was the per­fect option that attracted both locals and visitors. First offered with a variety of homemade syrups and sweet azuki beans, Matsumoto shave ice eventually made the store internationally famous. Stanley Mat­sumoto took over the store from his parents in 1976, and with his wife Noriko and daughter Remy, built the Matsumoto Store into one of Hale‘iwa’s most legendary, multi-generational family businesses.

The North Shore Chamber of Commerce is pleased to play a role in bringing to light the ex­ceptional story of a building that has fostered the dreams and ambitions of two extraordinary local families for nearly 120 years. Mahalo to Ben Bal­berdi and Kamehameha Schools for conscientious stewardship of the property, to Stanley, Noriko, and Remy Matsumoto for their support of the commem­orative plaque project and to Randal Tanaka for sharing his family’s history. Special thanks to Rever­end Ezaki for performing the blessing and offering a prayer for the continued success and prosperity of Matsumoto Shave Ice, in the heart of Hale‘iwa, for many more years to come!

This article was co-authored by Laura Figueira and Barbara Ritchie, members of the Historic Preservation Committee of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce.

Mamoru Matsumoto and Helen Ogi were married at Haleʻiwa Jodo Mission in 1937. Photo: Matsumoto Family Album.