A close-up of the historic Daimon Japanese Restaurant sign, capturing the craftsmanship, Japanese heritage, and enduring identity behind the restaurant Kikuo and Tomo Imamura built together.
The glowing Daimon sign against the Southern California night, preserving a piece of the restaurant’s history and the welcoming spirit that made it a beloved destination for generations.
Launched in memory of Japanese entrepreneur and restaurateur Kikuo Imamura, KikuoImamura.com celebrates his life, family and the creative spirit behind Daimon.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA, UNITED STATES, September 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Three years after the passing of Japanese entrepreneur and restaurateur Kikuo Imamura, his family has launched KikuoImamura.com, a digital memorial dedicated to preserving and sharing the story of his life, his family and the restaurant he built with his wife, Midori “Tomo” Imamura.Kikuo died on September 11, 2023, at age 70. The new website launches in his memory on the third anniversary of his passing, creating a permanent home for a story his family believes deserves to be remembered.
At the center of that story is Daimon Japanese Restaurant, which Kikuo and Tomo opened on Pacific Coast Highway in 1982 when Kikuo was only 29 years old.
For 23 years, Daimon brought together Japanese hospitality and the personality of Southern California—sushi and teppanyaki alongside music, surfers, laughter, sake, joking chefs and an atmosphere contemporary newspapers described as unusually lively and social.
But KikuoImamura.com is not simply a website about a restaurant.
It is about the man behind it.
A son who grew up watching his parents, Shigeko and Yoshinori Imamura, operate their family supermarket in Japan.
A Fukuoka University law student who chose entrepreneurship.
A young husband who built a life alongside Tomo.
A restaurateur inspired by beauty, nature, the ocean and rainbows.
An entrepreneur who continued building businesses beyond Daimon.
And, most importantly to the people who created the memorial, a loving husband, wonderful father and family man.
The site also preserves the Imamura family's oral history surrounding Kikuo's Rainbow Roll, a story connected not only to sushi, but to his appreciation for color and beauty.
According to his family, Kikuo experimented with different varieties of fresh fish arranged across a roll, creating colors that reminded him of a rainbow.
For the family, the story represents something fundamental about the way Kikuo thought.
When something unfamiliar made people hesitant, he found a way to make them curious.
He changed the invitation.
The memorial also preserves the story of chef Masa Ikuta and his wife. According to family recollections, a tempura-and-rice food inspired by tenmusu that Masa's wife regularly prepared helped inspire the idea that developed into Daimon's Crunchy Roll.
Kikuo's family remembers him encouraging the chefs around him to create their own ideas, a reflection of a man whose creativity was not limited to what he could make himself, but extended to what he inspired others to make.
KikuoImamura.com was created so that Kikuo's story would have a permanent home, not only as a restaurateur and entrepreneur, but as a husband, father and family man whose creativity, courage and love continue through the people he left behind.
For his family, preserving his history is ultimately about preserving the person behind it.
The entrepreneur. The restaurateur. The creator. The husband. The father.
Kikuo.
In Memory of Kikuo Imamura
November 16, 1952 — September 11, 2023
Official Memorial Website: KikuoImamura.com
Kaori Morita
Swell Country
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