Day 306: Anzen (Teikoku Company), Portland, Oregon
📌APIA Every Day (306) - Anzen, previously known as the Teikoku Company, was Portland’s oldest Japanese grocery and retail store. Initially established in Japantown (Nihonmachi) by Mosaburo Matsushima in 1905, it remained an essential shopping destination for the local Japanese community for over a century. Although Anzen moved from its historic location in the Merchant Block in the mid-1940s, the building still stands as a testament to early Japanese American history in Portland today.
Mosaburo Matsushima, who immigrated to Oregon from Okayama, Japan, originally opened his store under the name Matsushima Shoten. In 1911, six years after opening, Matsushima renamed his business the Teikoku Company, stocking a variety of goods for Japanese laborers, including canned food, hats, and caulk boots. At the same time, the shop became an agent of Yokohama Bank enabling Japanese immigrants to send money to their families in Japan. In the 1920s, Matsushima’s nephew and son, Umata Yasui Matsushima and Ayao Matsushima, took over the store’s management. During this time, the family inhabited and maintained the Merchant Hotel (then known as the Teikoku Hotel), which operated on the floors above the store and served as a boarding house for immigrants.
In the 1940s, Umata assumed full control of the business as the rest of the family returned to Japan. Aside from managing the storefront in Portland, he also traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest, delivering goods to Japanese laborers working in canneries and lumber camps. In 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Portland officials began closing Japanese-owned businesses around the city. Umata, in his position as the owner of the Teikoku Company, was arrested and sent to various detention centers around the country. The store was closed and his wife Fumi and their two children were incarcerated at the Minidoka Camp in Idaho.
After returning to Portland in 1946, the Matsushima family reopened their business near its original Japantown location. Due to concerns over the name “Teikoku” (which translates to “imperial”), the city government prohibited them from reopening under the same name. Instead Umata established the new store as Anzen, a word meaning “safety.” In 1968, Anzen moved to a new location in Portland's Lloyd District. Umata's sons, Yoji and Hiroshi, took over the business, continuing to sell Japanese foods, home goods, medicine, and books.
In 1975, the Merchant Hotel, the original location of the Teikoku Company Store, was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District. In 2014, after 109 years of operation, Yoji and Hiroshi Matsushima retired, and Anzen closed its doors. Although Anzen is no longer in business today, its legacy is embodied at the site of the original Teikoku Company which is now home to Goodies Snack Shop, an Asian food store established in 2022. While this marks a new beginning for the historic Merchant Building, Anzen continues to be remembered as a beloved community shopping destination by the Portland community.
Written by Avneet Dhaliwal
LEARN MORE:
Oregon Live: Landmark Portland Japanese market, Anzen, closes after 109 years
EATER: Goodies Snack Shop in Portland’s Old Town Revives Its Building’s Legacy
Rafu Shimpo: Portland JA Community Institution Closing
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