CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Masao "Masa" Tomimitsu was a familiar, smiling face behind the sushi bar at Masa Sushi, the Camarillo restaurant he and wife Yuko operated from 1984 until its sale to new owners in 2014. Tomimitsu died on April 20.

SHARE LISA MCKINNON/THE STAR Masa Sushi Japanese Restaurant remains in operation at Las Posas Plaza in Camarillo.

By Lisa McKinnon of the Ventura County Star

Masao "Masa" Tomimitsu, who co-founded one of Ventura County's first sushi restaurants when he and wife Yuko opened Masa Sushi Japanese Restaurant in Camarillo, has died. He was 67.

Tomimitsu was at home with family members when he died on April 20 of esophageal cancer, said daughter Sophia Mallon, of Ventura.

Born on Sept. 1, 1948 in Nishi Kobayashi, Miyazaki, Japan, Tomimitsu came to the United States in 1968 to join his late older brother, Haruo, in Los Angeles.

He married Yuko Ozono in 1974. The couple moved to Camarillo two years later.

Tomimitsu mastered the art of sushi making while working at Aki Restaurant in Santa Monica and Sushi Koi in Diamond Bar. He and Yuko ran a lawn-care service to help fund their dream of opening a restaurant of their own.

They opened Masa Sushi at 63 E. Daily Drive in 1984.

Mallon, who was about 2 at the time, said she and her brother, Stanley Tomimitsu, grew up at the restaurant.

"Often times we would fall asleep in the back," she said. "Mom told me a story of one time when I was crying, and my dad brought me behind the sushi bar and held me while he continued to work."

As they got older, Mallon, now an overnight emergency veterinarian who works in Thousand Oaks, and Tomimitsu, a sushi chef at Banzai Marina in Ventura, "got a lot of joy seeing how happy the customers were when they came in and saw our dad," Mallon said. "They knew they were going to have a good time."

Regular patrons included Karl Holst, who grew up in Camarillo and is now the executive chef at North Ranch Country Club.

"I first met Masa when I was a teenager, before I ever decided to become a chef. I got to know him more when I was working at Antonio's Italian Restaurant, which was across the street. We would go in after our shifts and frequently be his last customers, making his long day even longer," Holst said.

The restaurant's menu gave many people in Camarillo — and perhaps in Ventura County as a whole — their first taste of sushi, Holst added. "Over the years, Masa adjusted his menu ... embracing all the wacky Dragon Rolls and tempura rolls that make up modern sushi. So in a way he helped forge a new cuisine."

He did so with a beaming smile.

"Even when the restaurant was crazy busy he found time to entertain people with his jokes and goofy antics," Holst said.

One such joke involved Tomimitsu pushing an egg around on the counter. "He'd say, 'What's that? What's that?' And when no one answered, he'd say, 'It's an egg roll!' I must have seen (it) 50 times but it always made me laugh the way he delivered it. He got so excited," Holst said.

Masa and Yuko Tomimitsu attempted to retire in 2008 but returned to the restaurant after a few months.

They sold the business for good in January 2014, the month it marked its 30th anniversary. The restaurant's current owners opened a second location in downtown Ventura late last year.

During their second attempt at retirement, Masa succeeded in talking Yuko into taking up his beloved golf.

"They started playing together," said Mallon, noting that Sterling Hills Golf Club in Camarillo was a favorite course.

Tomimitsu also was an avid Dodgers fan and home gardener who was familiar with the blackjack tables at the Chumash Casino, family members said. He also enjoyed helping care for his grandchildren in the afternoons.

Tomimitsu is survived by wife Yuko; by daughter Sophia Mallon and son-in-law Matthew Mallon, of Ventura; by son Stanley Tomimitsu and grandchildren Jacob and Yuna, of Camarillo; and by sisters Kiriko and Kuni, of Japan.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Chapel of the Hills at Conejo Mountain Funeral Home, 2052 Howard Road, Camarillo. Tomimitsu will be interred there at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be made to the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.