Since 1903, a Japanese confectionery called Fugetsu-Do has been making mochi in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The shop’s interior, little changed since the 1950s, is lined with wooden shelves and glass showcases. Workers wrap packages of sweets in pink paper on a battered linoleum countertop. Through a doorway half-covered by a fabric divider is the store’s small factory, which produces a rainbow of mochi and manjū buns every week.
Brian Kito, the store’s third-generation owner, no longer marks his manju with the intricate, handmade metal brands that his grandfather Seiichi used when he opened the business. But he still keeps them in a rice flour-dusted plastic container under the factory’s wooden prep table.
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