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The Rise and Fall of Kobayakawa Boarding House—Mr. Ishioka Recognizes the Value in the Naming of Japantown
Today, in the open area on the east side of Sawtelle Boulevard, from La Grange Avenue to Missouri Avenue, stand big complex facilities and apartment buildings. In that block, there used to be a boarding house where many gardeners lived. It was called “Kobayakawa Boarding House.” It was a large boarding house with six big premises and simple frame houses that once held 60 people at its peak. Riichi Ishioka, an immigrant from Hiroshima started the business in a solitary house in 1926. It was extended in the early 1930s, shut down temporarily during the war, and closed in 1979 ...
