Associated Press
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LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) – Aiko Hamura, the co-founder of Hamura Saimin who perfected the restaurant’s recipe and helped make the business into a Kauai institution, has died. She was 91.

Family members said Hamura died Jan. 21 of a heart attack. A private service was held Saturday.

“She had a lot of spunk in her, so when she passed away I was really shocked myself,” said 74-year-old daughter Hazel Hiraoka, owner of Hamura Saimin.

Hamura and her husband, Charles, opened the saimin stand with only six wooden stools in 1952 on Kress Street. Business was slow in the beginning because the shop was hidden in a back alley.

Today, the family-run restaurant is frequented by locals and is commonly noted as a must-visit eatery in travel books and brochures.

Hamura got her start peddling vegetables from a black Ford sedan in the 1940s.

She then learned a recipe for saimin from a friend in Lihue and sold the noodles along with the produce, said daughter-in-law Jean Hamura

Hamura also is survived by sons Charles and Herbert, daughter Doris Hironaka, brother Hiromu Ikeda, sister Yoneko Yamamoto, eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.