S. Hata Building

Hata Sadanosuke was a Japanese businessman who built a historic structure called the S. Hata Building in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1912. It now contains specialty shops, professional offices, and Cafe Pesto restaurant. Sadanosuke's younger brother Hata Yoichi was another notable Japanese businessman who founded a major wholesale food distribution company in Hawai'i.Hata familyHata Sadanosuke was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1868 and immigrated to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1891. In 1893, Mr. Hata worked as an agent for Odo Shoten in Honolulu ("shoten" means "store" in Japanese), responsible for taking orders from large sugarcane plantations on the Hāmākua Coast which employed many Japanese immigrant workers. This gave him the inspiration to start his own business at Hilo on the Big Island on January 3, 1896 called S. Hata Shoten, Limited. He sold Japanese silks, kimonos, as well as eastern souvenirs and provisions. Business was slow in the first years, so he hired out his horse and hackney carriage as a taxicab for visitors.After the annexation by the United States to become the Territory of Hawaii in 1898, the plantations flourished, as did his business. He moved to a larger building at the corner of Mamo and Keawe streets. He branched out back to Honolulu and Hiroshima, Osaka, Japan, Kyoto, Japan, and Yokohama, Japan.