Ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Oct. 17.
Cultural Center opens its doors in Redlands.
The Redlands Japanese Cultural Center, located at 542 E. Stuart Ave., opened its doors to the public with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 17 and a community festival on Oct. 25.
RJCC’s mission is to celebrate, preserve, and promote Japanese culture and arts in the Inland Empire, serving as a vital space for cultural connection and community-building. It offers instruction in the Japanese language, martial arts (karate, judo, kendo, jujutsu), odori, taiko, ikebana, shodo (calligraphy), and origami.
Sabro Foster, who co-founded the center with Kevin Seishiro Suzuki, explains how it all started:
“The idea for the Redlands Japanese Cultural Center began recently, about a year ago, with a narrow focus on providing a dedicated, high-quality space for karate and taiko. I just retired from 37 years in public education, and my wife and I were driving to Riverside for karate and Pasadena for taiko.
Pictured at RJCC on Nov. 15 during a meeting of the Riverside JACL. From left: Co-founder Kevin Seishiro Suzuki, Marquita Foster, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside), co-founder Sabro Foster.
“However, this vision rapidly expanded as we recognized a community-wide need for a comprehensive center that celebrated and preserved the entire Japanese American experience.
“Making this a reality involved key developments: securing qualified personnel like a 6th-dan karate instructor, Kevin Suzuki, through a serendipitous meeting regarding his origami art, investing in specialized facilities like a custom sprung floor for kendo, and most significantly, receiving an outpouring of historical artifacts and donations from the community.
“This spontaneous transformation into a living repository cemented the RJCC’s mission, proving the community’s trust and confirming the center was fulfilling a vital role beyond just offering classes.
“Since the grand opening we have started our language classes — beginning, intermediate, and advanced — about eight classes total each week.
“We have had workshops in taiko, ikebana and origami. Judo, karate, and kendo have started regular classes. We have shodo and odori once a week. It is busy every day, all the time.
The first taiko class at RJCC was held on Nov. 4.
“In the short term, we have to make this self-sustaining, and that means filling our classes, selling memberships and fundraising. Kevin and I have to figure out all of the little things and big things that need to be systematized, like marketing, emails, becoming a vendor for charter schools, developing and marketing programs that help schools meet their ethnic studies requirements, tracking all the artifacts that have been donated.
“We also want to put together a Japan trip for our members for late next year or early 2027. We have space for a tea garden, and maybe a tea house. We have dozens of things that need to be framed and mounted on the walls. Other things need display cases.
“We want to partner with the high schools and the university in putting together a more comprehensive Japanese American history of the area.
“In the long term, we dream of having a compound, with classrooms and offices, gardens and museum space, and a purpose-built budokan. A place that would be a destination, that would do the history and the heritage the right way.”
RJCC is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and is currently seeking corporate sponsorships and private donations to support ongoing program development and facility maintenance.
For more information on class registration or sponsorship opportunities, email redlandsjapaneseculturalcenter@gmail.com or visit www.redlandsjapaneseculturalcenter.org.
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AloJapan.com