The Komoda Story
Komoda store front by Eddie Flotte
Takezo Komoda emigrated from Japan in 1907 as a 19-year-old with $10 in his pocket to work for HC&S at Pu`unēnē. Entrepreneurial from the beginning, he partnered with family members in a business in Wailuku before he moved to Makawao. He married his wife and partner Shigeri and had their first child Haruko and son Takeo before he opened the first Komoda’s as a store and coffee shop in his home on Olinda Road in 1916. Actually it was called a coffee saloon. A saloon is anywhere people gather to have a drink. Of course baked goods were essential with coffee and Shigeri was the baker who supplied them.
Shigeri was also a recent immigrant and neither Shigeri nor Takezo spoke English. Shigeri, along with nurturing the ever growing Komoda family that grew to eight children, continued as the primary baker and Takezo ran the store. They expanded into serving food such as saimin, stew and sandwiches, with the help of the older children. Firstborn Haruko, also called Ruth, spoke English and was considered the backbone of the operation making sure the family and the business prospered.
Success led the Komodas to purchase a lot on Baldwin Avenue from Rose Crook and to build the current store, which opened in 1932. The family worked as a team, the children helping in the store and delivering groceries. As World War II loomed, Takezo and Shigeri astutely anticipated the loss of everything they had worked for as they were aliens, so they transferred the property and the business to Takeo, their eldest son, and his wife Kiyuko, who were citizens. During World War II, with so many military in town, business boomed.
Haruko (Ruth) Komoda Murayama Takezo and Shigeri’s first child. She was born four years before the Komodas opened their coffee saloon on Olinda Road. As the first born and the first in the family to speak English she took on the major responsibilities for both the family and the business, enabling the family to succeed.
After the war, the store continued to sell groceries, hardware, clothes, fabric, and just about everything as a general store for the community. Customers would put their purchases on a tab and pay monthly. In 1947, Takeo’s brother Ikuo went to baking school in Minnesota, a turning point for the store which eventually changed its name to Komoda Store and Bakery. Ikuo baked the stick donuts and the malasadas which evolved from the fried bread dough the family had been making from the early days and added the iconic crème puffs in the 1960s.
With the rise of shopping centers and supermarkets in the 1970s, Komoda’s began to focus on their bakery operation, which had continued to grow in reputation. Reminiscent of their founding, they offered coffee and a place to sit for their customers to enjoy their baked goods. Komoda family members continue to run the store along with employees, which still provides the basics in addition to the bakery. Calvin Shibuya, the wife of Betty Komoda, now heads the bakery which produces 30 products. Calvin was trained by Ikuo himself.
One hundred years! Hasn’t Makawao been lucky to have Komoda’s?
Check out this Maui News article on Komoda’s 100th birthday celebration!
