Fugetsu-Do

Posted by on in Short Documentary

Details

An intimate portrait of a sweet shop that has been an anchor for the Japanese-American community in Little Tokyo since 1903. The ingredients of the brightly-colored pieces of mochi-gashi that line Fugetsu-Do’s wood-paneled cases include so much more than rice flour and sweet bean paste. Mixed inside are stories of joy and pain, tradition and racism, legacy and loss. Survival is never easy; it’s complicated and messy, full of contradictions and surprises. In the three generations that the Kito Family has been running Fugetsu-Do, the store has become a memory bank for the community and the stories that line its walls could not be more relevant in today’s America.

Director: Kaia Rose