Little Tokyo parish dedicates new mural depicting Japanese faith
The building on 2nd Street and Garey Street, located less than a mile from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, had been marred by blotches of orange paint covering recurring graffiti. Rusted iron bars over windows and metal rolling doors harkened back to when it was originally built about a century ago as a fish-packing factory.
But with reverence and imagination, that aging red-brick storage building on the campus of the St. Francis Xavier Church-Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center has been transformed by a multi-panel mural to illuminate a century of history on a corner of Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles.
Over the Labor Day weekend, the church unveiled the “Spirit of Our Roots” mural with an Aug. 31 event that included Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff celebrating an English-Japanese bilingual Mass at St. Francis Xavier, joined by pastor Father Doan Hoang and Father Peter Saucedo. Afterward, a procession of about 100 people singing “Amazing Grace” participated in a blessing for the artwork.