LIHU’E – Throngs of residents and visitors got a glimpse of Japan’s culture and traditions at the Matsuri 2000 Festival at the Kaua’i Memorial War Convention Hall yesterday. Exhibits of ikebana (the art of arranging cut flowers in a decorative
LIHU’E – Throngs of residents and visitors got a glimpse of Japan’s culture
and traditions at the Matsuri 2000 Festival at the Kaua’i Memorial War
Convention Hall yesterday.
Exhibits of ikebana (the art of arranging cut
flowers in a decorative design), bonsai, oshibana (pressed flowers made into
cards) and sumie (Japanese brush painting) filled the main entry to the
facility. Japanese dances and karaoke also were performed.
Also planned
was the pounding of mochi, a favorite Japanese delicacy served to usher in the
new year and that is served at ceremonies.
On Sunday — the second day of
the event — traditional kimonos worn by children are scheduled to be
showcased.
Highlighting the celebration was yesterday’s signing of a
sister-city pact between the Kaua’i Museum and the Immigration Museum on Oshima
Island in southern Japan.
Many of the early Japanese immigrants who came to
Hawai’i to work in its sugar fields came from Oshima Island.
The Kaua’i
Museum was asked to be part of the event because it has historical data on
those early immigrants.
The friendship pact was signed by Mayor Maryanne
Kusaka; Mary Thronas, chairwoman of the board of Kaua’i Museum; Carol Lovell,
director of the museum; and three mayors and a representative for another mayor
from Oshima Island.
Kusaka toasted the moment in front of 70 onlookers, and
said she supports sister-city relationships. This pact, she said, will further
strengthen ties between Kaua’i, the state and Japan.
The connection between
Hawai’i and Japan goes back more than a hundred years. In 1881, King Kalakaua
was welcomed as the first head of state from Hawai’i who visited
Japan.
During a blessing Saturday, the Rev. Richard Kamanu of the First
Hawaiian Church in Kapa’a, applauded efforts by residents of Japanese ancestry,
who he said have made Hawai’i a better place.
“It is a celebration of your
culture, here in this place,” Kamanu said.
The event also offered a way for
youths of Japanese ancestry to get in touch with their roots, according to
Pearl Shimizu, vice president of the organization.
“Lots of them don’t know
what Japanese is,” she said. “They are so Americanized now that they don’t know
what the traditions are. Of course, we are proud to be Americans, but they
should know their identity as well.”
The festival was sponsored by the
Kaua’i Japanese Cultural Society, which was partly formed to educate the public
about Japanese culture.
The event has been held for the past 15 years, with
a break in 1993 because of the damage to the island by Hurricane Iniki in
1992.
Saturday’s events were capped with a dinner for dignitaries and some
40 members of a contingent from Oshima Island and the public at the Sunspree
Hotel in Wailua.
Also invited to the festivities were Kusaka’s husband,
Charles, and Roy Nishida, Gov. Ben Cayetano’s liaison on Kaua’i.
The
co-sponsors of the event were Kaua’i County, the Kaua’i Economic Development
Board and the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which collectively provided $10,000 in
grants for the event.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at
245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net
