Food and fun celebrate Okinawan culture
Performers with the Paranku Club of Hawaii danced and played their taiko yesterday as the banners of many Okinawan clubs were displayed to open the Okinawan Festival at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand.
Shelby Watanabe, 3, posed with chondara (clowns) Warren Kotani, left, Mel Gushiken, Hachi Higa and Dexter Teruya.
The hands of Lisa Sadaoka, of Miyashiro Soho Kai, played the koto, a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument.
Members of the Urasoe Hawaii club, from left, JoAnn Seo, Joy Tanabe, Carol Uchima and Bobbie Ito fried up the traditional andagi.
Children and the young at heart couldn’t resist posing for photos with the chondara, or Okinawan clowns, making their way around Kapiolani Park yesterday for the 28th annual Okinawan Festival.
Eileen Martinez of the National Park Service paused for a snapshot with the four red-and-white-faced characters.
"They made me smile and laugh," said Martinez, who was wearing her ranger uniform. She couldn’t follow their tradition of exchanging hats, but gave them junior park ranger pins. "I made them honorary rangers."
The two-day festival ends today at 5 p.m. Organizer Hawaii United Okinawa Association is celebrating several milestones, including the 110th anniversary of the first arrival of Okinawan immigrants to Hawaii and the 50th anniversary of the Naha-Honolulu sister city relationship.
Naha Mayor Takeshi Onaga, who attended the festival, signed a reaffirmation of the sister city compact with acting Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell last week.
Through an interpreter, Onaga said Okinawans in Hawaii took care of their forebears, many of whom lost their homes and were starving after World War II.
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Okinawans in Hawaii sent back home 500 pigs that were shared among the prefecture’s cities and perpetuated the Okinawan cuisine, which relies heavily on pork, he said.
"I’m deeply touched to be here today. I’m very inspired," he said.
George Miyashiro, president of the Okinawan club Urasoe Hawaii, said that when he visited Okinawa, relatives expressed how much they appreciated his parents sending them necessities after the war. "There is a connection so fast, it is amazing," he said.
Now Miyashiro, 72, volunteers to help cook andagi at the festival every year. "It’s part of us," he said. "Most people come because it’s from the heart. They want to contribute to the culture."
Several festival-goers said they came for the food — champuru, andagi, andadog, pigs feet and Okinawa soba. Others watched the traditional dancing accompanied by the bamboo flute, taiko drums and stringed sanshin.
Under the shade of a tree, 5-year-old Kai Austin Sasaki ate an andadog, a type of homemade corn dog. His father Roger, of Liliha, said they were visiting the beach when they decided to go to the festival.
"I was only supposed to go one time, but I went 10 times," Kai said of the jumper maze. "That was awesome."
