Film: Benkyodo and Atomic Café, Screening and Filmmaker Discussion

Watch the Saturday afternoon matinee screening of BENKYODO: The Last Manju Shop in J-Town and Atomic Café, followed by a discussion with Eryn Kimura and Tad Nakamura, independent filmmakers. Isa Nakazawa will moderate the discussion. 

Ricky Okamura, one of the owners of Benkyodo, attends as a guest. 

Door opens at 1:30 PM. The program starts at 2 PM. 

About BENKYODO: The Last Manju Shop in J-Town

Ricky and Bobby Okamura, the current owners of Benkyodo mochi shop, established in 1906, make a difficult decision to close their family business. The Japanese pastry shop, a landmark for Japanese/Asian Americans in the Bay Area, is one of two mochi shops currently open in the San Francisco-Bay Area. Currently 115 years old, the business has endured the anti-Asian laws of the early 20th century, Japanese-American incarceration, Redevelopment of the 1960s and continues to weather San Francisco’s notorious high costs of living. The unsurmountable economic pressure, coupled with the two brother’s desire to preserve their Japanese heritage, family business and community space, create an age-old conflict many children of diaspora face--between the laborious preservation of culture or the submission to the economic forces of capitalism.

NR, 16 minutes, 2023.

About Atomic Café

In the late 1970's, when L.A.'s punk rock scene was exploding, an unlikely family-owned restaurant in Little Tokyo started by Japanese Americans returning from America's WWII concentration camps, became one its most popular hang-outs. That's when Sansei "Atomic Nancy" with her "take-no-prisoners" punk make-up and demeanor took the cafe over from her parents and cranked up the jukebox. Infamous for its eclectic clientele - from Japanese American locals and kids from East L.A. to yakuza and the biggest rock stars of the day - the Atomic Café became an important part of L.A.'s punk rock history.

NR, 10 minutes, 2020. 

Note: These films do not have closed captioning.

About Eryn Kimura: Producer of BENKYODO: The Last Manju Shop in J-Town

Eryn Kimura (she, they) is a mixed media visual artist, and cultural and community organizer based on the unceded territory of the Ramaytush-speaking Ohlone people - San Francisco. A fifth generation San Franciscan, Eryn’s work - whether through teaching in the classroom or pasting on the walls - celebrates and archives the polycultural city that raised her. Currently, Eryn serves as the Associate Director of Community Resiliency Programs at the city’s oldest Black-led and Black-serving organization, Booker T. Washington Community Service Center. This is Eryn’s first film.

About Tadashi (Tad) Nakamura: Director of BENKYODO: The Last Manju Shop in J-Town and Atomic Café

Tadashi Nakamura is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker and the Director of the Watase Media Arts Center, a production company of the Japanese American National Museum. Tadashi was named CNN’s “Young People Who Rock” for being the youngest filmmaker at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. In 2025 he returned to Sundance to premiere his latest film THIRD ACT (2025) about his pioneering filmmaker father, Robert A. Nakamura, and his current battle with Parkinson’s Disease. With over 20 years of filmmaking experience, his films include MELE MURALS (2016), JAKE SHIMABUKURO: LIFE ON FOUR STRINGS (2013), A SONG FOR OURSELVES (2009), and PILGRIMAGE (2006).

About Isa Nakazawa: Discussion Moderator

Isa Nakazawa is an Oakland-based writer, producer, podcaster and astrologer. She is currently the host for Stars and Stars with Isa, a weekly podcast where she sits with the most talented artists and thinkers of our time to read them their birth chart and discuss their life’s purpose. She is also the host for Transmission Studio, a bi-weekly show produced by BAVC Media, featuring candid conversations with San Francisco’s independent artists.

About Ricky Okamura: Special Guest

Ricky Okamura is the third-generation owner and proprietor of Benkyodo Co., which was the 115-year-old traditional Japanese confectionery that was opened by his grandfather in 1906.