San Mateo home honors the history of Japanese American family

But that didn’t stop the community from not only assuming pivotal leadership roles but also proudly displaying Japanese culture and customs throughout the city.

And many of those residents had rooted themselves in the San Mateo area well before the war. A couple of them were the grandparents of Laurie Watanuki, a lifelong San Mateo resident, who still lives in the house she grew up in with her family, including her grandmother. She was young at the time, but still remembers the home being a frequent gathering spot for the community.

“I knew as I was growing up, different things were taking place. We’d have quite a few people, 300 people here, with all these different events,” she said.

The property was also recently listed in both the State and National Historic Registers, as well as a register for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in California, due to its significant contribution to Japanese American influence during the time period.

The exterior of the Yoshiko Yamanouchi House, named after Watanuki’s grandmother, is a midcentury ranch house, which blends in with the rest of the neighborhood. But it’s the backyard area and interior that boast Japanese-influenced elements, such as the hill-and-pond garden and katsura building and walkway.

“It’s kind of unusual that we would have a home that’s built with this kind of architecture and combined with Japanese architecture,” Watanuki said.

The property is a daily reminder of her family’s centurylong roots in the city and their contribution to what’s considered the issei, or immigrant, generation. Her grandfather, Tetsuo Yamanouchi, started the San Mateo Buddhist Church in 1909 and was president of the Japanese American Association of San Mateo County for almost two decades. And her grandmother also led numerous events in the city and founded the San Mateo Buddhist Women’s Association, all while running the family business.

“They went through quite a bit, and it wasn’t easy coming to a new country,” Watanuki said.

Challenges grew decades after Yoshiko’s arrival, as she and her daughter, Laurie’s mother, were sent to Utah in one of the internment camps during the war. They were lucky enough to be able to resume running the family business upon their return, but San Mateo was still much different for Japanese Americans than it is today, Watanuki said.

“I think they made the best out of a pretty difficult situation,” she said.

Over the years, the home has hosted numerous Japanese American guests, as well as visitors coming directly from Japan, including the prime minister and his wife in 1964.

Watanuki started the process to seek historic designation for her home around 2018, and the effort accelerated with the work of other community members, including the San Mateo Heritage Alliance. Despite the arduous path, she said she is relieved and honored to have such an important historic property nationally recognized.

“It’s important to preserve history, and it’s important for the first generation of Japanese Americans as well,” she said.