GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Shishido Manju Shop Inc., a popular family-owned bakery on Maui, will close down Monday. The clan includes Alice Shishido, left; son Elton; husband Garnett; employee Lea Agcolicol; Elton's wife, Kelly; and relative Faye Amaral.
Maui’s
Shishido Manju
closingA family dispute leads to
the shutdown of the popular bakery,
which opened in 1946
WAILUKU >> Elton Shishido lifts the telephone receiver for the third time in five minutes to take an order and confirm his family's Japanese pastry business on Maui will be closing.
"Yes, Monday is our last day," Shishido tells the caller. "Our orders are all filled for today, but we're still taking orders for Monday."
Founded in 1946 by his grandparents Takichi and Tokue, Shishido Manju Shop Inc. has been a popular gift-buying stop for many island residents, especially those of Japanese ancestry.
Shishido, 37, said the business will shut down in an attempt to resolve a family dispute about the ownership of the land under its two-story, hollow-tile building.
He said the business itself has been doing well, with its top product, mochi, sometimes selling 3,000 to 4,000 daily.
The disk-shaped mochi, about 3 inches in diameter, is steamed from a variety of sweet rice and mixed into a paste before special ingredients are added and shaping occurs.
Shishido's mochi is a translucent white, consistently soft, light, mildly sweet, chewable and sublime -- somewhat like peanut butter, but without the sticky aftertaste.
Elton Shishido, who has worked in the business since he was 11 years old, said money has never been the driving force in the family-operated business.
He said he has enjoyed seeing generations of Maui residents pass through the business door, many buying manju and mochi as gifts for friends and relatives.
"It makes you feel good over here," said Shishido, pointing to his heart. "That's rewarding."
Gift giving -- what the Japanese call "omiyage" -- has continued to be a tradition with some islanders, who bring a specialty food to friends and relatives after a visit to another island.
"It's something that is sunk into you. You no can come back with nothing," said Murry Shimose, an Ewa Beach resident. Shimose said he was bringing back four dozen peanut butter mochi from Shishido Manju for his wife's friends at St. Francis Medical Center-West.
Kahului resident Alan Nagamine, who was buying azuki bean mochi for his parents, lamented the closing of the pastry business.
"This is the only place that makes it a certain way -- soft," Nagamine said.
Shishido said the secret to their "soft" success has been in letting his mother, Alice, and employee Lea Agcolicol put the final touches in making the mochi.
The Shishidos tried a machine, but the results were not the same.
The Shishidos moved from a shop at a hospital camp in Puunene to the Lower Main Street property in 1960 and reopened in 1962 after building a new bakery.
Although Takichi was a baker from Fukushima, Japan, and had worked at Puunene Bakery before starting his own business, the family found its greatest success when his sister gave him special ingredients for making mochi.
Her granddaughter Faye Amaral helps in the kitchen.
Elton Shishido's father, Garnett, who retired in 1997, occasionally makes deliveries.
Shishido's wife, Kelly, said she will miss the atmosphere of working among relatives.
"It's all about family and love here," she said.
