Mark Santo (left) manages the store with help from his parents, Earl and Helen.

SAN JOSE ­— In conjunction with the second annual Spirit of Japantown Festival, Santo Market will celebrate its 62nd anniversary next week.

An anniversary sale will be held Wednesday, Oct. 1, to Saturday, Oct. 4, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (coffee window opens at 6 a.m.).

Santo Market was founded in 1946 by George Yoshijiro Santo. The first location was on the corner of 5th and Jackson streets in San Jose Japantown. Within the year, the store moved next door to a bigger space.

Wartime Rationing

Santo Market sold Japanese and American groceries, meats, produce and dairy. Right after World War II, wartime rationing limited Santo’s customers, who were only able to buy sugar, meats, and other products with rationing coupons.

Santo Market would stay open late for the Japanese farmers and gardeners who would come to Nihonmachi after working all day. Business was very brisk.

In 1948, Earl and Roy Santo, George Santo’s nephew and son, started helping out at the market right out of high school along with some of their friends.

A New Location

In 1955, Santo built a new store at 6th and Taylor streets with more than five times the space and a parking lot. At this time, the market began to cut its own meats and stocked a lot more, providing more choices of Japanese imports and American groceries.

In 1965, George Santo retired and Roy and Earl Santo took over the store. Roy took care of the American groceries and Earl managed the Japanese food products, meats, and produce areas. Earl’s wife Helen joined in and took care of the bookkeeping.

About the time of Roy’s illness, Earl’s sons, Mark and Scott, along with their Santo and Kodama cousins, worked part-time during high school and college. Many of their friends had worked there too.

A Taste of the Islands

In the early 1970s, products from Hawaii brought in many islanders enjoying ahi, poi, lau lau, ogo, senbei and candies. Today, Santo Market carries products from Hawaii such as Hawaiian Sun drinks, salad dressings, S&S Saimin, macadamia chocolates, lihi moi, Hawaiian breads, Hawaiian crackers, a variety of kamaboko and much more.

In the late ’70s, they started to make and sell their own maki sushi and inari sushi, working extra hard at the homemade inari, getting the seasoning just right.

The market sold its own char sui meat and eventually made char sui bao. The next project was bento, which included saba shioyaki, chicken teriyaki, umani, teriyaki hot dogs, teriyaki flank steak, black bean spare ribs with gohan and “Bachan’s Tsukemono.”

Following the shift into the deli area, fresh mochi, kinpira gobo, okara, and sekihan were sold.

In 1997, the coffee window started serving those living in or passing through Japantown. Earl and Mark opened the window at 6 a.m., providing coffee, mocha, lattes, and espresso along with banana bread, donuts and fruit.

In addition to the regular deli sandwiches, there are several signature sandwiches — Portuguese sausage, teriyaki beef, teriyaki flank steak and char sui.

Always popular in the summer is the shave ice with fun flavors or with azuki and ice cream. A new item this summer is the refreshing Chinese chicken salad.

With the addition of prepared hot foods, Santo Market opened the center of the store for customers to eat and relax.

Today, Mark Santo is managing the store with owner Earl still running around. Earl and Helen’s other children are also involved — Leslie Kitazumi manages the office, Scott Santo and Lynne Yamaichi stop by to help out after work or on weekends.

Fourth Generation

The fourth generation of the Santo family is learning and appreciating the work of running the market. Earl and Helen’s grandchildren, ages 7 to 19, help during the summer, on weekends, during the anniversary sale and especially during Oshogatsu (New Year).

Earl and Helen enjoy their work and appreciate seeing many old friends and relatives as well as making many new friends. It is a place where many come to buy their Japanese, Hawaiian and deli foods, then stop to chat, sometimes for hours.

The family looks forward to many more years in Japantown.

The market is located at 245 E. Taylor St. For more information, call (408) 295-5406 or 295-7512.