The Art of Sushi and Sake
Hayahiko Takase - Architect - Artist - Community Activist

By Nancy Uyemura

The New Year brings a long over-due spotlight on Hayahiko Takase, architect by profession and a cultural treasure within our community. Mr. Takase has been a person of great talent, integrity and humanity, truly a person who has bridged the gap between Japan and the United States and he has made the Japanese American community proud to call him a leader within our community.
He was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1930, and graduated from Tokyo University in 1953. When asked why he became an architect he explained that it really began when he was a young boy. “Pearl Harbor had happened and I was in the 6th grade. There was an air raid on Tokyo and I saw a 2 engine black plane flying low. Since I really liked airplanes, I had memorized all the military planes from all over the world. I was sure it was a B25. When I told the teacher and my friends this, no one believed me.” – It was the Doolittle Raiders, the first bombing raids over Tokyo.
“It was when I was in the third grade of Jr. High School that I decided I wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. However, by the time I went to University, no University had that Department because Mac Arthur had stopped all studies of this major. So the problem for me, and my friends that liked making model airplanes, was what major to choose. Interesting, most of us picked architecture for our major. We were not so much interested in the mechanics of airplanes, but we liked the beautiful shape of the plane. And so, architecture was a mixture of art and engineering.” Takase explained.
So, Takase went on to study architecture in the Engineering Department at Tokyo University, receiving his degree in 1953. While in Graduate School he was asked by one of his professors to assist him in Brazil, to work on the Japanese Pavilion at the first World’s Fair after WWII in the city of Sao Paulo. They left Japan while stopping in several major U.S. cities, where they saw new architecture, before arriving in Sao Paolo (at that time there were no direct flights from Japan to Brazil). Then, as luck would have it (or perhaps it was his destiny) an unusual turn of events, provided him with an opportunity to work on a project in the U.S. for one of the architects who they met on one of the stops before arriving in Brazil. This architect was Minoru Yamasaki (who was the architect for many very famous buildings, probably the most famous was the WTC twin towers in NYC). Takase ended up working and studying in the U.S.A. (At that time it was difficult to get visas, so if he returned to Japan there was a good chance that he would not be able to leave Japan – and studying abroad was something that he wanted to do.) In 1956 he received a Masters in Architecture from the Graduate School of Design, at Harvard University.
In 1960, Takase returned to Tokyo and joined the Design Department of Kajima Corporation. In 1964 he was sent to Los Angeles by Kajima to establish Kajima International Inc., and appointed Director of Design. He left Kajima International Inc. in 1977 to start his own firm, Takase Associates, Inc. He has designed many of the buildings in Little Tokyo, to include: the Kajima Building, Higashi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, New Otani Hotel and Garden, Little Tokyo Plaza, Sho Tokyo Community Parking and Miyako Hotel. Other major structures elsewhere are the Riccar Building in Tokyo, Japan, Nissan Motor Headquarters Building in Carson, California and Seiko Instrument Headquarters in Torrance, California.
Hayahiko Takase became the Sr. Vice President of Nikken America in 1988, (Nikken is the largest architectural firm in Japan) then its President in 1992 until it closed its American branch. He then headed Takase Associates, Inc. again and currently he is designing the Little Tokyo Recreation Center/Budokan.
In addition to his architectural work, Takase is one of the original members of the Little Tokyo Community Development Advisory Committee appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley and served as its Vice President, Treasurer and member-at-large. He was the director of the Japanese Chamber or Commerce of Southern California and has served in various positions, including president in 1999. In 1993, he organized a campaign to provide voting rights to Japanese living overseas, which was successfully won with a Japanese Supreme Court judgment in 2005. Takase is also on the board of Nanka Kenjinkai Kyougikai, Aurora Foundation and Keiro Retirement Home; he is the president of the LA Tokyo Kai and the founder and ex-president of the LA Kimono Club.
Takase was awarded the Design Honor Award from the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ) in 1964, Design Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1975 and the Kunsho, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, by the Japanese government in the fall of 2000. He was also awarded the Nisei Week Pioneer Award in 2005.
We are fortunate to have Hayahiko Takase here, in Los Angeles and we thank him for his creativity and commitment to this community. His devotion to Japanese Art, design and culture has created a unique blend of two worlds, giving us a richness of diversity and identity that is uniquely Little Tokyo.

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