In Their Words: Cyrus and Guy Tamashiro on the End of Tamashiro Market

The view from the other side of the poke counter as the April 30 closing nears.

3 hours ago

Mari Taketa,

Photo: Mari Taketa

Tamashiro Market closes for good April 30, taking with it a piece of Honolulu’s identity and part of ours. But all of us in mourning need to know this: That time capsule of a Kalihi fish and poke store is a success story for the Tamashiro family, who are closing it on their terms after 85 years. Brothers Cyrus and Guy Tamashiro are 72 and 69. They deserve a long and healthy retirement. That’s the story in a nutshell.

But of course there’s more, an enormity more. Three generations built a legend that by our era, launched the fourth generation toward their own dreams. That their children have grown into fulfilling careers of their own is a great satisfaction for the Tamashiro brothers. Taking over the family business was their choice—which for Guy has meant 52 years of waking at 4 a.m. to make it to the Honolulu Fish Auction for the 5:30 opening bell. The ‘ahi, nairagi and other seafood he picks out, fish by fish, fill the market’s poke and fillet cases. For about as long, Cyrus has risen at 5 a.m. to open the store and take care of business until it closes.

For much of this time, the brothers were also caregivers, and until Louise Tamashiro passed away at 94 at the end of January, they took turns staying with their mom overnight. When they told her they were thinking about retiring soon, Cyrus says, Louise gave her blessing. “Go ahead,” she said. “Take care yourselves, take care your bodies.”

Part of the poke case last Friday. Photo: Mari Taketa

So it’s time. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that we lose Tamashiro Market at its golden hour. There is no other like it. After next Thursday, it will exist in our memories—of favorite poke (‘ahi onion is still the top seller), ‘opihi you could buy by the pound, of tender madako, glistening New Zealand Ora King salmon, live crabs and pickled limu and snacks. The fishing boat hanging above the grocery aisle. The giant red crab out front.

Cyrus and Guy Tamashiro made time to talk with us a few days ago. They were jovial. Old school. Gracious. And grateful. But for feeding my memories from the time I was eye level with those crabs, for being there when I needed fish for ailing parents (and ‘ahi bloodline for an ailing cat), and most of all, for what Tamashiro Market means to Honolulu, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Cyrus Tamashiro: When KHON broadcast the news, social media just took over, all over the world. My phone lit up. We didn’t even have a chance to tell our cousins. We had a lot of ’splainin’ to do. We had to apologize, say you know what? It wasn’t supposed to come out, we were supposed to announce on March 30^th, 31^st.

It broke on a Friday, and Saturday morning, there were about 20 people in line. I thought they must want poke for the weekend. All 20 people went straight for the T-shirts. They kept going until they wiped out two months’ supply in one day. So we order more, and we go through three months’ supply in one day. It hasn’t stopped. We only had long-sleeved shirts today, but about 20 of them stayed in line and bought everything we had.

The line for T-shirts. Photo: Courtesy of Guy Tamashiro

Our employees taking over? I don’t think anybody wanted to take the full responsibility. It’s not easy. Even when I’m sleeping, I’m dreaming about work. What’s the weather gonna be like? Is fish gonna be available? Can we fill the orders, can customers get what they need? Can’t really rest.

The biggest surprise is that it lasted this long. The years go by very quickly. We do what we’re doing, we’re not thinking about our bodies aging, how long the business has been operating, and only recently, we’re like hey, we’re gonna make 85! We saw an old photo: May 1^st, 1941, the grand opening of Tamashiro Market in Hilo. There’s my father, my grandparents and uncle, surrounded by flowers in the small store.

[When the business moved to Honolulu in 1947], there were very few fish markets. I think my father thought it would be a good chance to bring in things that other places didn’t have, like live crabs and lobsters. When he saw the potential for poke, he converted our meat department to poke. It was kind of a risk, but he said I think we’re gonna do very good business in poke. That was in the early ‘70s. By then, we were offering as many types of poke as Baskin-Robbins has ice cream. And then other people caught on 10, 20 years later.

We never deviated from using fresh fish. When the frozen carbon monoxide came out, people used that and masked the natural taste with the sauces. We always want the natural flavors to come through. We enhance it with condiments and other ingredients, but not overly. Fresh fish in our poke was important.

I like the taste of fish. To me, it’s the easiest thing to cook, very tasty, healthy. I can eat fish every day. Japanese breakfasts are the best because instead of bacon and Spam, you got fish, oh so good. Fish and eggs and miso soup.

Guy and Cyrus Tamashiro, asked to “act natural.” Photo: Mari Taketa

So from the ’70s Guy, started to say I wanna buy fish, and he started to go to the auction. Full-time from 18.

Guy Tamashiro: It was exciting. The ‘A‘ala Park auction [Honolulu Fish Auction’s original site was near the park], it was a challenge because all the old-timers didn’t want to let the young punk in. Eventually, they made room when my dad asked one guy, can you please teach my son? Then they didn’t try to block me out so much.

The old auction, language was very colorful. That was to make it harder for outsiders to get in. There was some Chinese, Japanese, Pidgin, all kind of languages. Some terms were really stupid, like bow wow wow, that’s $1.11. “Chowder pung,” I don’t know how to spell it, was 75 cents. Ikeni, same price for the next fish. Now, it’s just calling out the price, and it goes down until somebody bids.

Cyrus: I have lot of customers asking, where am I gonna get this? Where am I gonna get that? Let me get your name and number, let me see who’s selling that. Like the New Zealand king salmon, or ‘inamona. So I been going to a lot of different markets. I’ve seen them before, but now I look with a different eye. One vendor, he’s doing a great job, but the parking is terrible. You know, for older people. I’m an older person, and it’s hard for me. I didn’t realize how easy our parking is.

Guy: Over here, there’s parking, and we have the variety, live crabs, lobsters and all that. I think that made it easy for our customers because whether it’s the poke or the fish or groceries …

Cyrus: I had this one company that offered, I want your name to live. We’ll give you a bunch of money, we’ll use your recipe, we’ll have Tamashiro Market on the sign. I said it’s not the same. What matters is the ingredients that go in, and then it’s the recipe. The initial ingredients have a lot to do with how poke turns out. The guy looks at me, he’s blank. I just don’t think it will work. That’s why we have to go down to auction and pick the ones we want, get the top madako, I found out he’s only bringing it in for us. I’m gonna ask, is there any other place so I can refer my customers and I can go there too?

There’s no daylight yet in sight for me. There’s so much work to be done, just to get to that point. But it’s exciting, to think in a little while it’s gonna be over and I can relax.

Photo: Mari Taketa

Guy: I wake up at 4, and I’m usually in the store by 5, getting all my paperwork ready to go to the auction, and then auction starts at 5:30. And for some reason, I’m still here.

Cyrus: I get up at 5, I’m in the store by 6:30, and I’m here til closing. Sometimes, I’m here at night in the office.

When we were younger, our store hours were longer. But we’re not so young anymore.

People have been like we better buy the poke we’re used to before they close, buy the fish before they close. But they come with stories—really, really good stories. One gal said you know what? If it wasn’t for Tamashiro Market, I wouldn’t be here. What do you mean? My mother and father met at Tamashiro Market. They saw each other a couple of times, and then my father asked my mother, who was a haole from the Mainland, he was a local boy, he got the courage to ask her out on a date. They got married and had children and grandchildren. She said I owe Tamashiro my life.

It feels good to hear the stories. Very uplifting. We’ve made friends. We had so many pictures taken with our customers.

Guy: It’s been really nice. A wonderful experience.

Cyrus: We should have announced we were closing a year ago.

Guy: I can actually watch a Netflix series. What is Netflix?

Cyrus: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you to our customers, to our employees. Thank you to our fishermen, our suppliers and business associates. Everyone has contributed to making this a gratifying and memorable career. It’s now time for us to wind down. We’re looking forward to resting and relaxing. It’s fun, go go go, but it gets harder to go 100 miles an hour.

But yeah, so much gratitude for everyone.

Guy: Yeah. That is so true.

Mari Taketa is editor of Frolic Hawai‘i and dining editor of HONOLULU Magazine.