Doug and Chris Aihara

The Nisei Week Foundation is pleased to recognize Doug and Chris Aihara and Azay restaurant with the Frances K. Hashimoto Community Service Award.

This award recognizes people and organizations for their outstanding contributions to the Southern California Japanese American community. This year, the annual awards event will be held in conjunction with the Coronation on Aug. 9 at the Aratani Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St. in Little Tokyo, starting at 6:30 p.m. Individual tickets are $95 (orchestra) and $65 (balcony).

Also recognized at the Coronation and Awards Celebration will be this year’s grand marshal, Thomas Iino; parade marshal, East West Players; Inspiration Award recipients, Michael Okamura and the Japanese American Vietnam Veterans. For information, call the Nisei Week Foundation at (213) 687-7193. Tickets will be available at the JACCC website or the Aratani Theatre box office, (213) 680-3700.

Doug and Chris Aihara have had a long relationship with the Little Tokyo community, especially Doug. In 1946, his father, Luis Aihara, opened Aihara Insurance Agency on San Pedro Street, which Doug subsequently headed until his retirement. Doug’s family has long maintained strong ties to organizations and activities in Little Tokyo.

For Doug and Chris, student activism in the ’70s reinforced the importance of remaining connected to their Japanese American community as well as the need to preserve its unique identity, its future, and the well-being of its members. Doug was a member of the Asian American newspaper Gidra and an original board member of Visual Communications.

Chris took a position in 1982 at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, where she initiated many programs, including Kotohajime and Children’s Day, and wrote interpretive materials about Japanese American culture.

After retiring from the JACCC as executive director, she joined the staff of the Little Tokyo Service Center, where she realized the completion of the Terasaki Budokan — one of the most rewarding projects of her career.

Working in Little Tokyo expanded Doug’s and Chris’ volunteer work in many other organizations in the Japanese American community, including serving on the boards of Senshin Buddhist Temple and the Little Tokyo Community Council.

Doug also served on the board of Keiro and was a member of the Little Tokyo Business Association. Meanwhile, Chris served on the City of Los Angeles Community Advisory Committee and the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council.

The two are retired but remain active in the community. Chris is working with her daughter-in-law, Lisa, to create children’s books on Japanese American culture. Doug and Chris have four adult children, three daughters-in-law and seven grandchildren. The Aihara tribe can often be seen roaming the streets of Little Tokyo.

Azay is a family-owned-and-operated restaurant that reflects both its deep roots in the Little Tokyo community and its many ties to the global culinary scene. The restaurant is named after the Loire Valley town where the founding chef-owner, Chef Akira Hirose, first began his culinary training. It is located in the original Anzen Hardware space, opened in 1946 by owner Tsutomu Maehara, Hirose’s wife Jo Ann’s father and former Nisei Week chair-person.

Hirose was born in Kyoto and moved to France at 18 years old. After seven years of working in kitchens in Azay and Paris, he moved to Los Angeles and then returned to Kyoto to open his first restaurant. In the early 1990s, Hirose, who became a husband and father to two children, Michelle and Philip, returned to Southern California, where he opened Maison Akira in Pasadena.

In January, Azay provided food for first responders and those who were the most impacted by the devastating wildfires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Pasadena, Sylmar, and Hollywood.

Azay’s menu, along with its cultural and community programs, echoes many of Chef Akira’s experiences in the kitchens, gardens and communities of the culinary world as well as the personal relationships he made along the way. His gratitude to all who touched his life is still felt in his food.

Today, Azay is managed by Hirose’s son Philip, who continues the family legacies that bring together French, Japanese, and Japanese American cultures and communities. For the Hirose family, this includes moments like supporting the communities affected by the Southern California fires in January, when they provided bento for evacuees and first responders, and they continue that effort today.

With the support of the staff as well as the community, Azay builds on Chef Akira’s expansive vision of what a restaurant could be.

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