LIHUE — Roy Miyake was excited because Friday night he added two more names to the photos of interned Issei, or first generation Japanese Americans.
Chris Faye, the Kauai Museum curator, said Miyake had the photos on display at the Koloa Jodo Mission bon dance and people recognized two of the many interned Issei depicted in four photos.
The display was part of the monthly Ohana Day celebration on Saturday at the Kauai Museum, coinciding with the height of the Obon season.
Laa Almeida, museum educational outreach officer, said July is also the Tanabata, or star festival.
Tanabata translates to mean “evening of the seventh,” and is derived from the Chinese star festival, Qi Qiao Jie held in August.
People celebrate this date by writing wishes on small colorful pieces of paper and hanging them on bamboo, or wish, branches. Once the day is done, the bamboo and its decorations are often set afloat, or burned around the midnight hour.
The original Tanabata day is based on the Japanese lunar/solar calendar resulting in some festivals being held on July 7 and some are held around Aug. 7.
Obon, a Hawaii celebration derived from Buddhist customs brought to the islands by Japanese immigrants arriving to work in the plantation, falls on Aug. 15, the 15th day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar, states the About Japan website.
Like the Tanabata festival, in some parts of Japan obon is celebrated around July 15.
With two Japanese festivals falling in the summer, Kauai Museum took advantage of Ohana Day to offer a miniature Japanese cultural festival, pulling together a variety of crafts like origami and flower arranging utilizing recycled plastic film containers, prescription pill containers, and empty water bottles as base.
Lenore Klass, Family and Community Education, Kauai member, created paper origami boxes using a pattern taught to her when her daughter was nine years old.
“I use colorful magazine and calendar pages cut to size,” Klass said. “My daughter is now a mother of her own children, and I continue to make these boxes she taught me how to do. I’m hoping she teaches her children how to do them.”
The Kauai Museum, 4428 Rice Street in Lihue, is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Visit www.kauaimuseum.org, or call 245-6931 for more information.
