Since 2011, visitors to Japanese Village Plaza have hung their wishes on a bamboo tree. (PETER YOON/Rafu Shimpo)

By PETER YOON, Rafu Digital Editor

The Little Tokyo Wishing Tree, a popular attraction in Japanese Village Plaza, is gone.  

Naoko Ikeda, proprietor of Blooming Art Gallery, received the notification to remove the wishes from the tree via an email from American Commercial Equities Management Offices, which manages the Japanese Village Plaza property.

Ikeda, known by her friends as Nikki, stayed up until midnight on Jan. 15 tearing down the wishes of hundreds of Little Tokyo visitors. “I closed at 7 and spent five hours to take down the paper,” she said.

The Wishing Tree was inspired by the Tanabata celebration in Japan, which occurs every year on the seventh day of the seventh month. People of all ages write their wishes on colorful pieces of paper called tanzakuand tie them to bamboo trees. The collection of colors decorating the trees adds to the festive atmosphere of the summer holiday.

The Tanabata wishing tree covered in wishes. (SOPHIA COLE/Rafu Shimpo)

Ikeda began the Wishing Tree in 2011, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster caused by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Donations of $1 were collected for each wish that was tied to the tree, to be donated to the relief efforts in Fukushima.  

Over a six-month period, Ikeda collected over $4,000 in donations, which she hand-delivered to Fukushima City Hall. She received a letter of recognition from Fukushima Prefecture for her contribution.

Ikeda continued to collect donations for the Wishing Tree, donating the proceeds to local temples in Little Tokyo. “I have a passion to do this. I’ve been doing this for over 12 years,” she said.  

This year, she chose to contribute the donations to Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, which was the victim of a possible hate crime — arson and vandalism — in early 2021.   

Naoko Ikeda delivers the Tanabata tree wishes to Bishop Noriaki Ito at Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple. (PETER YOON/Rafu Shimpo)

A representative of Japanese Village Plaza cited fire risk as the primary reason for the removal.  “The primary concern we have is that it does pose a fire risk because of all the paper,” the representative said in a phone interview. “We have had incidents in the past where vagrants and teenagers have set it on fire. Luckily all those were contained, but we wanted to avoid that situation because it is somewhat of a liability.”

Naoko Ikeda displays one of the wishes from the Tanabata wishing tree. (PETER YOON/Rafu Shimpo)

Ikeda hopes to continue sharing Japanese culture and activities with Little Tokyo visitors. “I want to continue doing it because people want to do something special when they visit Little Tokyo.  Not just eat and shop and go,” she said. “They’re looking for a taste of Japan, feel of Japan, speaking Japanese, learning Japanese culture. If they don’t see that, they could just go to a big shopping mall. Why would they come to Little Tokyo?”

The wishes that were removed from the tree in Japanese Village Plaza were collected by Ikeda and delivered to Higashi Honganji. Here are a few of the wishes:

“I wish for my friends to get good fortunes and blessings in the same way that they bless me.”

“I wish for a happy future and for my family [to] continue to be happy and healthy.”

“I wish that my family can have a good life :).”

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This publication was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.