True tales of seafood markets.
’Tis the season of traditions: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and fish.
Fish? In many countries, eating fish at Christmas is a beloved custom. Italy’s Feast of the Seven Fishes may be the most famous, but the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Finland, and Fiji, among others, have similar rituals.
Absent from this list is Japan, but the story of early Japanese fishmongers in Reno has intrigued me for years. So began a long investigation — and the discovery of an interesting array of other fish markets.
The Early Days
Fish markets always seem incongruous here, hundreds of miles from the ocean. Yet in the 1870s and 1880s, oyster “saloons” were everywhere, from Reno to Virginia City (see my column in edible Reno-Tahoe’s Winter 2017 issue). I found the earliest reference to fish stores in 1901, for the Reno Fish Market, selling “all kinds of salt water fish by express every morning.” By 1907, a Sacramento market, the American Fish Co., set its sights on Reno, opening a retail store receiving between 500 and 800 pounds of fish weekly.
By 1909, irresistible ads appeared for Harry the Fishman (last name Anderson) touting the purity of his fish “because every eatable we offer for sale is absolutely fresh and pure.” Humor even had a place, as the establishment offered “fresh fish at poor man’s prices — the only second class store in town.” Sadly, Harry’s was pretty short-lived. A year later, the business was assigned to a creditor.
Fishmonger Wars
By 1910, there was a parade of competing fishmongers in Reno — perhaps sparked by racial prejudice. On one hand, we had the Japanese-owned Reno Fish Market, at 141 N. Center St., operated by E. Zaizumi.
Competitor Nevada Fish and Produce Market, in a series of unfortunate nativist ads, announced it was “the only American store in Reno exclusively handling these products” and “the first American-owned sea products market in the city.”
Around 1914, along came People’s Fish Market, touting cleanliness: “the fittings are sanitary to the extreme and all are enameled or painted pure white.” In 1916, there was mention of a fleeting enterprise called the Washoe Fish Market.
Japanese Fish Markets
Tracing Japanese markets has been a confusing maze, filled with business name changes and concealment of Japanese ownership, presumably to offset prejudice. Reno Fish Market, previously mentioned, was first called the Japanese Fish Market, but unlike many stores of that time, the proprietors’ names — G. Watanater and E. Kaizumi — weren’t mentioned. Was it ethnic protection? In 1912, in an uncommon move, Zaizumi was arrested by the fish and game warden for a bounty of trout exceeding 10 pounds. He pled guilty and was fined $25. This might explain why the name of the market was changed to Reno Fish Market just three years later.
One entrepreneur who stood out in Japanese markets was Usuburu Uchida. In 1916, he proudly attached his name to the new Nevada Fish Market at 233 Lake St. His ads proclaimed, “We buy direct from the fishermen and have every kind of fish to satisfy the demands of the most particular people.”
Tom Takeuchi, who worked with Uchida for five years, opened the American Fish Market in 1931 at 261 N. Sierra St. The market created a stir in 1934 when it installed a “new fish window … refrigerated in the latest manner, freshly filled daily.” The store operated through the 1940s.
American Fish Market became a success story under the new ownership of brothers Frank and Ken Date. San Francisco fish suppliers ran trucks to Reno. The business was next door to Fenwick’s Art Supply, and local historian Jerry Fenwick recalls, “They always sold what they could, fresh. It was not unusual for Frank to go down the street giving away fresh crab on Friday evening because they had what was not sold.”
The partnership was dissolved in 1962, and Frank continued to operate the store until 1965, when he retired and started a second career with the City of Reno.
Today, only one store in the Reno-Sparks area exclusively specializes in seafood — Sierra Gold Seafood in Sparks.
The fish market’s glory days waned with the appearance of fish counters in supermarkets. Sewell’s Market featured one as early as 1942. Fish markets have all but disappeared, but finding fresh fish isn’t a challenge: Just belly up to any one of the numerous sushi bars throughout the region.
Itadakimasu (Japanese for bon appétit)!
Sharon Honig-Bear was the longtime restaurant writer for the Reno Gazette-Journal. She is a tour leader with Historic Reno Preservation Society and contributor to Renohistorical.org. She can be reached at Sharonbear@sbcglobal.net.
