Kikuo Imamura archive launches to preserve Daimon and sushi history

Kikuo Imamura’s family has launched KikuoImamura.com on the third anniversary of his death to preserve the story of the Japanese entrepreneur, restaurateur and the Southern California restaurant he built with his wife. The memorial spotlights Daimon Japanese Restaurant, the family’s oral history and Imamura’s role in shaping a distinctive chapter of local sushi culture.

Why it matters: - The new archive gives Kikuo Imamura’s family a permanent home for the history of Daimon Japanese Restaurant and the man behind it. - The memorial preserves a slice of Southern California sushi culture that mixed Japanese hospitality with surf-town energy. - The site also keeps family stories and restaurant origins in one place for future readers.

What happened: - Imamura’s family launched KikuoImamura.com on September 11, 2026, the third anniversary of his death. - Kikuo Imamura died on September 11, 2023, at age 70. - The site is a digital memorial devoted to his life, his family and the restaurant he built with his wife, Midori “Tomo” Imamura. - Daimon Japanese Restaurant opened on Pacific Coast Highway in 1982. - Imamura was 29 when he and Tomo opened Daimon.

The details: - Daimon operated for 23 years. - The restaurant combined sushi and teppanyaki with music, surfers, laughter, sake and joking chefs. - Contemporary newspapers described the atmosphere as unusually lively and social. - Imamura grew up watching his parents, Shigeko and Yoshinori Imamura, run a family supermarket in Japan. - He studied law at Fukuoka University before choosing entrepreneurship. - The memorial presents Imamura as a husband, father, family man and entrepreneur who kept building businesses after Daimon. - The archive includes the family’s oral history of Rainbow Roll, tied to Imamura’s interest in color and beauty. - According to his family, Imamura experimented with different fresh fish arranged across a roll to create rainbow-like colors. - The site also preserves the story of chef Masa Ikuta and his wife. - Family recollections say a tempura-and-rice dish inspired by tenmusu helped shape Daimon’s Crunchy Roll. - Imamura encouraged chefs around him to develop their own ideas.

Between the lines: - The archive is doing more than documenting a restaurant. It is framing Imamura as a creative force whose influence ran through family, staff and the local dining scene. - The emphasis on oral history suggests the family wants to protect stories that might otherwise be lost as memories fade. - The memorial also recasts restaurant innovation as a collaborative process, not just the work of one chef or owner.

What's next: - KikuoImamura.com will serve as the official memorial website for Imamura’s life and legacy. - The family appears to be using the site as a long-term repository for stories, images and history tied to Daimon and the Imamura family.

The bottom line: - KikuoImamura.com turns one restaurant founder’s legacy into a public record of family, food and a distinctive Southern California sushi era.