Legacy of New Otani Hotel in Little Tokyo (Part Two)
The hotel was port of entry for Japanese culture to the U.S.
Cultural News, November 2007 Issue
A postcard announcement of a 1987 Sunday cultural program in the New Otani Hotel. (Courtesy of Yoko Sugi)
By Takeshi Nakayama
The New Otani Hotel and Gardens, which will be renamed and undergo managerial changes after its recent sale to 3D Investments of Beverly Hills, leaves a legacy of leadership in promoting Japanese culture to Southern California residents.
Reflecting its heritage, the New Otani Hotel features a half-acre Japanese garden on the third floor adjacent to its Thousand Cranes Restaurant. The hotel also has three tatami room suites featuring sunken Japanese baths overlooking the garden.
Yoko Sugi, one of Japan’s leading postwar film stars, served as associate director for social affairs at the hotel from 1982 to 2003, and spearheaded its efforts to promote the appreciation of Japanese culture in the United States.
During her 21 years at the New Otani, Sugi developed a program of traditional Japanese art forms with seasonal events, exhibits and art demonstrations, combined with guest lecturers and entertainers that attracted large audiences from throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.
As the tenth anniversary event of the hotel, the New Otani Hotel presented the Dai Chakai (Great Tea Ceremony) assembling masters of several tea schools. The New Otani experienced the Los Angeles Riot and the Northridge earthquake during Sugi’s tenure.
“On the first Sunday of the month, we featured Japanese cultural events and exhibits such as tea ceremony and a furoshiki display in the Rendezvous Lounge. On the fourth Sunday, cooking demonstrations such as osechi, kaiseki ryori and sushi, took place,” she says. “The cultural demonstrations were free. The cooking demonstrations only cost $8 or $9 and guests could eat all they wanted.”
The monthly Japanese cultural programs featured calligraphy by Rev. Ikuta Kansu; tea ceremony with schools of Omotesenke, Urasenke, Edosenke and Ogasawara Senchado; flower arrangement with schools of Ikenobo, Ohara, Sogetsu and Missho. “Lots of people came—Japanese people, Americans who loved Japanese culture, and even hotel guests. We all became friends. It was an ideal situation we had here. During the tea ceremony, we gave free tea to the attendees.”
The cultural programs had talented instructors, Sugi reminisces. “They were wonderful. The teachers devoted all their lives to their art. This place became the center for people to get together and learn about Japan. It was a good time in the ‘80s, before Japan’s bubble economy burst.”
Moreover, noted celebrities such as Abe Joji, writer Tokiwa Shinpei, essayist Ei Rokusuke and Buddhist monk and renowned writer Terauchi Daikichi came from Japan. She says, “This was the cultural port (of entry).”
Sugi also established the New Otani Ladies Club, which held monthly entertainment programs including pantomime artists, singers and other Japanese performers.
She recalls that the Asahi newspaper held lectures at the New Otani, with guest speakers such as actress Arima Ineko, poet Tawara Machi, playwright Kuramoto So and writer Miyao Tomiko. The hotel also hosted bonsai organizations, a textile-dyeing teacher, and a lecture by Japan Airlines’ Fujimatsu Tadao of New York.
The New Otani Hotel has more than 400 rooms, including several that accommodate the physically handicapped. Special attractions included the Commodore Perry Restaurant (now the Genji Bar). “Behind the Genji Bar is the Tachibana Room and a karaoke room,” Sugi notes. “Actress Kishi Keiko used the Tachibana Room for meetings.”
Former Prime Minister Abe’s father, then foreign minister, attended a luncheon at the Thousand Cranes Restaurant, recalls Sugi, and Kabuki actor and dance master Bando Mitsugoro IX had a ceremony in the Tachibana Room to honor Japanese American women who had earned their dance certificates.
However, with the decreasing number of tourists and business people coming to Los Angeles after Japan’s economy soured in the early 1990s, the hotel cut back on the number of cultural events it sponsored because of the expenses.
“Before, even the Japan Airlines’ stewardesses stayed here,” Sugi says. “So many Japanese tourists came here, and they shopped at Matsuzakaya and other stores in the Weller Court shopping center adjacent to the hotel.”
Peak years for Japanese guests at the New Otani Hotel were 1982, 1983 and 1984; from 1987, the number of Japanese guests at the New Otani Hotel started to decline, according to Sugi.
“I heard of the hotel’s sale the day before the public announcement,” reports Sugi. “Of course, I heard rumors earlier. It is referred to as toki no nagare—the current (trend) of the times.”
Tokyo-born Sugi, a veteran of more than 70 Japanese films and several U.S. movies whose best-known film is “Aoi Sanmyaku” (“Blue Mountains,” 1949) explains, “I enjoyed my job. I am proud of Japanese culture. It’s a wonderful thing to introduce Japanese culture at this wonderful place where nice people gathered to exchange opinions and make friends. It was the best time of my life.”
(Japanese names are spelled in traditional order with last names appearing first.)
Takeshi Nakayama is a freelance journalist who lives in Walnut, California.