Laku, the 30-year-old Japanese handcraft boutique at 1089 Valencia St. near 22nd Street, will close in January, owner Yaeko Yamashita confirmed this week.
The landlord is raising the rent, Yamashita said. At 70, she has decided to pack it in, rather than try to make the business viable.
“I’m 70 years old,” Yamashita said, adding that she doesn’t have enough energy to find a new location, move the vintage furniture and Japanese paintings on the wall, and start anew.
Already, she was forced to close the store for months last November after being injured in a hit-and-run accident.
“So sad,” Yamashita said, looking out to Valencia Street on her little stool with her dog, Chabo, on a recent Tuesday. “The wonderful customers I have.”
After the hit-and-run last November, Yamashita suffered a broken right leg. She was dealing with other health conditions too, she said.
Just as Yamashita was getting back on her feet, a property manager, Ben Stern at Gaetani Realty, reached out to say she would be evicted from Laku if she did not agree to a $3,800 lease, $900 more than her current rent, according to Yamashita and her friend Andrea Reed.
Soon after that, Yamashita found a 60-day eviction notice on Laku’s door.
The new landlord, who took over the property in September, planned to convert two rooms in the back of the store into a one-bedroom apartment, Yamashita said.
The landlord offered to continue leasing her the storefront, but for $3,800, or $900 more than she currently pays for more space. Moreover, she would lose access to a bathroom.
Stern, the property manager, did not respond to requests for comment.
The increased rent was beyond her reach, Yamashita said. Already, she was in financial trouble because she missed last holiday season — the busiest of the year — after the hit-and-run accident last winter. In and out of the hospital four times, Yamashita had no income for nine months, and she only reopened in September.
During this time, Yamashita incurred about $11,000 in back rent for her home, which she shares with two other roommates, Reed said. She is now paying her rent plus $1,000 every month until she catches up.
Yamashita’s friends and family have been communicating with the commercial property manager on her behalf, hoping to extend her lease, and have set up a GoFundMe to help with the back rent.
For quite some time, Yamashita’s friends have talked to her about closing the store. Laku is simply not “making financial sense,” said Keiko Fukumura, a friend of the owner.
“But she’s like, ‘I have nothing else to do. This is my life.’” Fukumura said. “She’s holding on with her fingernails, literally. She’s so stubborn, that’s why she’s still around.”
In part, it is clear that the small store has become a kind of refuge and art project. It’s filled with vintage furniture, fabrics and handmade pieces of art. It has been on Valencia Street at two locations for 30 years, enduring the ups and downs of the business corridor over the years.
Yamashita put up the chandelier. She painted the walls herself, and built a small kitchen in the back, where she makes tea and cakes for her friends and neighbors. The pots, pans and kitchenware are all vintage pieces that she has collected.
“She made this beautiful, adorable craft world,” Fukumura said. “But the only thing that’s gonna kick her out is that piece of paper.”
Laku, a staple in the neighborhood, has been on Valencia Street for 30 years. Photo by Junyao Yang on Dec. 14, 2023. 
A vintage lamp sits next to a huge mirror and paintings made by Yamashita. Photo by Junyao Yang on Dec. 12, 2023. 
Laku, the Japanese handcraft store, is filled with vintage fabrics, handmade gloves and antique Kimono robes. Photo by Junyao Yang on Dec. 12, 2023. 
Fingerless gloves in Laku are handmade by Yamashita. Photo by Junyao Yang on Dec. 12, 2023.
On Tuesday, Yamashita opened the store about two hours later than usual, after coming back from a medical appointment. She hasn’t been feeling well, physically since the hit-and-run, she said.
“I’ve been kind of tired, having to make money, money, money, but not a lot of art,” Yamashita said. “If no store, I can relax and make art.”
However, she can’t help worrying about making a living after shutting the store.
“I’m so low-income,” she said. “I have to make money, but I don’t know what to do.”
For now, Yamishita hopes to carve out a space in the living room of her apartment, where she also sleeps. There, she will put the fabrics and a sewing machine so she can work and sell from home to places like the Asian Art Museum or Etsy, Reed said.
Even so, Reed has concerns. “She will be very isolated working at home. Her whole social world is built on the store, that’s her main contact with the world.”
And here, we captured Yamishita style.
Laku is located at 1089 Valencia St. It’s open from Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Writer: PLEASE stop using the term car “accident”. It was not an accident it was a “crash”. It wasn’t an accident that the car driver hit a person and drove away. Accident infers an act of God and our streets are designed to encourage reckless behavior and not protect individuals outside cars. Google “crash not accident”. Thanks.
Yeah that’s actually a really good point.
That’s a shame- it seems a bit nutty of the landlord to expect more rent for a smaller space without bathroom access, especially given the number of empty storefronts on Valencia. The motivations/calculations of commercial real estate are rather confusing, I’d love to see some reporting on the topic.
From the looks of it, the landlord is aiming at throwing the tenant out on the street outright. More condos or rather, just another permitted and entitled empty husk of a project that is hoped for to be sold on one day? Whatever the cruel reason, we might find out in a couple years’ time.
Beyond this particularly galling case, it seems as if there’s no shortage of desperate, overleveraged commercial property “owners” these days, staring down the abyss of financial ruin. So you ask, why not lower rent to attract tenants who would help holding up the financial scaffolding? That’s because lower rents lead to lower valuation of the RE holding, leading to the bank requesting the difference between the original and the new valuation be covered pronto. This of course leads to situations where – in our new, (normal) non-zero interest environment – landlords find themselves facing default when they can’t swing financing the bank’s request. Although, here’s another wrinkle: This might be an academic consideration in the first place: Said landlord might run the numbers and find out they’d lose more money on the refi than what they’d take in with a tenant filling the space but paying the lower rent.
So they are all holding out for better times that may never come, butt cheeks squeezed in anguish until the day of reckoning. I figure there’s many a mom-and-pop landlord who got in over their heads.
One way or another, In the end, even more properties and capital will shift towards mega-corporations, helped on by Peskin et al’s vacancy tax, guaranteed to simply accelerate the misery, not actually fill any vacancies.
I agree! It seems to happen over and over with commercial real estate over the past year or so. I am highly suspicious there is some sort of tax write offs to let those buildings sit empty. So sad, these places are an important part of our community.
Once again, can we please have someone do a piece on these landlords who are evicting valuable and beloved small businesses – the very things that make our city special – and then leaving the storefronts to rot empty and blighted? Specifically, who owns this building? And the one that is evicting Stuff? And the Uptown bar? I would like to know the answer to the question of why this is being allowed to happen. And why is our District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen not doing something, anything, to keep these businesses from being pushed out and the buildings emptied and left to decay? Mission Local, can you please do a piece on this issue – and preferably before we lose these 3 – and so many other – valuable establishments? Thank you in advance! – Morticia
Due to shameless half truths reported by Mission Local, the landlord is skewed as a villain. As the former landlord, I subsidized Laku for decades with low rent. I tried to motivate her to expand her business. I got her to sell on Etsy years ago. She never opened her store with continuous store hours. She lost walk up clients. She is a nice person but she created her own economic dilemma. I know as a fact that the new landlord treated her with kid gloves. They did not want to cause her to lose her business due to respect for a legacy tenant. She was trying to sublease the back room for years with no takers. She does not use it. That is a certified legal apartment. The final offer to lease the front portion for $3800 is still a deal. Cheap rent. She would have been provided a bathroom. Face it, she does not understand English well and does not process information correctly. I know from decades of experience. Mission Local spread inaccurate information about her rent about 3 years ago in another “story’. Again, they now choose to misinform and make “Landlords” appear as villains. Her lack of a business plan is at fault for decades now. She also wanted to retire 3 years ago. Why does her son not support her economically in her old age ? Don’t blame the Landlord. SF is an expensive City and a difficult small business environment. Try owning a building or small business and find out how expensive it is to operate with governmental hoops to straddle as well!! The City destroys small businesses. All the best to Yaeko Yamashita.
Thank you so much for this wonderful article on Yoko Yamashita and her beautiful store, Laku. Many business owners have been forced out by landlords who rent out their property for profit with no concern for the important lives they have affected and the lack of empathy for an elderly artist who lives a life important to their community. Unfortunately, sometimes greed wins out.
so very sad to see this unique store leave the Mission – for so long as part of the fabric of Valencia street, the windows full of quirky beautiful handmade hats, stuffed animals, and precious little children’s velvet slippers. I have bought many gifts there over the years and will miss Yaeko and her special creations.
She is getting evicted for GREED not a piece of paper. The woman would likely close soon, but GREED overcomes all in our society. I will go over and find something to buy from her just to help a little.
This is a huge loss as she is one of the most creative individuals on Valencia St. I hope she continues to find joy after she’s gone. So sad to read this news!
This is so sad – I love this shop and is part of what makes Valencia unique. What I don’t understand is how these landlords are still raising rent? Like with Stuff. Is there some sort of perverse tax benefit to have properties sit empty so landlords are asking for crazy rents when the market is depressed?
Is there a fundraiser for her to get caught up on her debt? If yes, I’ll donate to help!
Laku is a wonderful little store that has unique, one of a kind knitted hats, fingerless gloves and scarves. The jewelry & clothing are tasteful vintage. Everything is beautifully displayed and the owner is kind and spunky.
Being priced out due to rent spikes is a story on repeat in San Francisco, particularly in the Mission because it has become THE neighborhood for the techie universe. Techies want craft this, that & the other and bespoke experiences but their ability to pay higher than current market value has made ravenous realtors even hungrier, and realtors couldn’t care less about artists & family owned businesses.
BOS, & Sen Weiner just recognize that when you exempt condos and legacy businesses from rent control, you are surrendering family-owned, artists & small businesses to the ravages of realtors who would evict their grandmothers if it meant more rent money.
The condo exemption makes San Francisco rent control fake.
Thank you for the article about Laku. I’ve known Yaeko for 25 years, our sons have been friends for that long. As single mothers, we met at CYO daycare where our sons attended after-school care. She has been an anchor of Valencia small-business and contributes so much to the neighborhood. Her boutique is well loved and curated, it would be a shame to lose her & Chabo on Valencia.
I wonder if Yaeko applied to become an SF Legacy Business would help. It may be too late for that.
I wish there were a way to let a prospective future tenant know that a greedy landlord pushed out this wonderful artist and her legacy business. Gaetani is not likely the property owner but should feel embarrassed they are abetting the owner.
I haven’t been to Laku in 15 years, but before that, I would always buy her slippers for new babies and friends. I always loved Yaeko’s energy and would go into a trance watching her wrap gifts in corrugated cardboard. If she can find a new shop, I’d gladly provide my labor to help with the move.
Mission local seems to have deleted my recent long and comprehensive response. As the former Landlord that kept her rent cheap for decades, I know that the new landlord has been VERY sensitive with her situation. She is not making money and has alot of debt including unpaid rent no doubt. Her commercial lease has been month to month for a decade or more.
It is not a situation about GREED. She is retiring. Try reporting honestly!
Instead of blaming the “greed” of property owners, maybe people in the Mission could actually buy some of the products being sold by the few remaining wonderful shops like Laku. “Capitalism” is always to blame while every one of us eagerly participates in it in ways that benefits us. Few of us will make any real sacrifice to our comforts or convenience, but will arrogantly point fingers at others who do, too.
Sorry. What you say may be true. There is no comparison to what a non property Owner a tenant, can do in comparison to a landlord. The bay are was a dream when I came here in 1969. The cost of living is a nightmare. Good luck tech and ai.
This is what’s rotten in our city, property managers/owners who have no soul.
Gaetani Real Estate’s greed is causing this shop to close.
Sorry to hear this. The owner always looks so sad when I walk by.
I love laku. yaeko’s work is absolutely beautiful. with all the currently vacant spaces on valencia, it would be great for laku to be able to move into one. and there could be a community effort to move and install everything in a new space.