Bunka no Hi 2026 at the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington

Bunka no Hi, Japanese Culture Day, is Sunday, November 1, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington. The address is 1414 S Weller Street, Seattle 98144. Admission is free, with support from 4Culture. Food and drinks are for purchase.

The campus sits on the south edge of Chinatown-International District, in the old Central District residential strip that used to be Nihonmachi’s backyard. The three wood buildings went up between 1913 and 1929 as Kokugo Gakko, the Seattle Japanese Language School, the oldest operating Japanese language school in the continental United States. After the war the same rooms became the Hunt Hostel, temporary housing that Genji Mihara ran for families coming back from Minidoka. JCCCW itself dates to a 2008 merger of the language school and the Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington.

That history is why this day feels different from a downtown festival. You are walking into a landmark, not a rented hall.

The 2026 English and Japanese ledes feature local cartoonist Sam Goto (1933–2017). His daughter, Kelly Goto, is showing Seattle Samurai, a bilingual exhibit drawn from her book of the same name, plus a talk. The page also flags iaido, samurai armor, Go, tea, crafts, and food.

Below that, the same page still carries a full hour-by-hour card that matches last year’s mending program: Rain City Sumo at noon, Satomi Toraya on kogin-zashi, Jen Lo on kintsugi, Patrick Johnson on shakuhachi, Shannon Roudhán and Jason Bowlsby on sashiko, and Seibu Ryu on iai-battojutsu. East-West Chanoyu Center is listed for 20-minute tea sittings in Zuishin’an, no tasting, 15 people, free tickets at the front office. Kozmo Kitchen and Tokora Confectionery are on the food line. Hosekibako stays open.

Treat the Sam Goto exhibit as this year’s lock. Treat the mending times as a leftover card until JCCCW refreshes them. One sashiko slot even reads 3:00 to 3:00. Confirm the live schedule the week of. Co-emcees on that table are Mari Wilson (ウィルソン真理) and Koichi Kitazumi (北住幸一).

Last November, JCCCW said about 700 people came. The campus is small. Arrive near 11 if you want a tea ticket or a seat near the first demo.

Seattle Bon Odori in July is the bigger Japanese street night. CID Night Market was the last neighborhood street date, September 26. This is the indoor fall visit, a short walk from King Street if you already did the CID. Metro routes 7 and 36 run Rainier. International District/Chinatown Station is the Link stop, then a walk up toward 16th and Weller. Questions: (206) 568-7114 or admin@jcccw.org.

Our take: pick two demos and the tea sitting. Do not try to see every table. The Goto exhibit and one martial-arts block is a full afternoon. Eat onigiri upstairs, then walk back through Little Saigon.

When: November 1, 2026, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Where: JCCCW, 1414 S Weller St, Seattle, WA 98144