06/02/2026
🍘Senbeis (rice crackers) are Japanese treats enjoyed in Canada for over 100 years😋
These illustrations show varieties of senbei sold at Junzo Yamake’s Kasuga Kash*ten located at 359 Powell Street in Vancouver’s Paueru-gai neighbourhood, one of the earliest Japanese confectionary stores in British Columbia. The senbei were molded into various shapes and designs, including sakura blossoms 🌸 (top right corner), chestnuts 🌰 (middle row, first on the right), turtles 🐢 (last row, second from the right), and chrysanthemums 🏵️ (middle row, first on the left). Junzo was forced to give up his store upon the forced dispossession and relocation of Japanese Canadians from the West Coast in 1942. He established a new kash*ten in Kamloops where the family resettled following the forced internment period in 1950.
See a photo of Hatsuye Yamake, Junzo’s wife, inside the Kasuga Kash*ten on Powell Street around 1935. Tins full of senbei are stacked in the top right corner, and the glass case displays manju and other confectionaries. Learn more about the Yamake family and Japanese Canadian history at nikkeimuseum.org.
🏛️See some of the manju (sweet bean cake) molds used to make confectionaries at the Kasuga Kash*ten (NNMCC 1997.9.1) on display at the Museum of Vancouver exhibit “1930s-1940s: Boom, Bust, and War”!
Association of Canadian Archivists
