For Gen Fujikawa, happiness could be simple: one mango tree, one lychee tree and a boat.
As a teenager he felt more at home in the ocean than anywhere else, giving priority to fishing, diving or surfing over homework. Often he’d give his catch to the homeless on the Leeward Coast, along with any spare change. One day he hoped to work in aquaculture as a way to give back to the land, sea and people.
On Dec. 23, 2005, when he was 18 years old, Gen drowned while diving. A decade later his parents are sharing his dreams and legacy of aloha with others in a place of solitude on Mouna Farm in Waianae Valley.
Surrounded by about 100 friends and family, Robin and Linda Fujikawa on Feb. 20 dedicated “Gen’s boat” and a nearby garden with a Hawaiian blessing.
Linda Fujikawa said all are welcome to use the boat as a retreat vessel, “when you need time for quiet and to find your peace.”
Mouna Farm, which grows organic fruits and vegetables for the needy, also serves as an arts and cultural village. It was founded by copper artist Sooriya Kumar, once a wandering sadhu (holy man) from Sri Lanka, for people in search of “inner silence,” which is the definition of the Sanskrit word “mouna.”
For his community service efforts, Kumar was recently named a “Living Treasure of Hawai‘i,” one of this year’s five recipients of an annual award presented by Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii.
During the boat dedication, he said, “I want to celebrate the journey of Gen.” Kumar added, “He’s here with us today. He brought all of us here today.”
When Kumar met Gen’s parents several years ago, Linda Fujikawa gave him a book she had written about her son’s life.
“Sooriya cried so much, he couldn’t read the book,” Fujikawa recalled. “So he opened it to one page, going to the part that says, ‘Mom, I’ll be happy with one mango tree, one lychee tree and a boat.’
“One of the first things Sooriya did for us was to plant a lychee tree. And the boat was already there waiting at a neighbor’s house across the street. Everybody helped to bring the boat here.”
Kumar engraved stalks of bamboo on the copper door of the boat’s cabin. On both sides of the door are mounted the Japanese kanji (symbol) that stands for Gen’s name. “Gen” means “source, ki, chi or spirit.”
“True to his name, he is the source of great fulfillment even after his death,” Fujikawa said.
The boat’s exterior is painted with a cheerful scene of fish swimming about the ocean floor. And the cabin will be lined with deep tatami mats.
Robin and Linda Fujikawa, both longtime Kapiolani Community College professors, are Buddhist and Christian, respectively. The couple said they never prodded their two sons to follow a religion.
Linda Fujikawa said, “My son (Gen) embodied the word ‘aloha.’ … Gen had to go on but he is guiding me. With death comes despair, but with it also comes a clarity that the ending is an opening to something more.”
Days after Gen’s death, she said, he appeared to her with a reassurance that he had “graduated to the next level” and advised her to “do what you really want to do.” Fujikawa said she was shocked and not sure whether the experience was a dream because of its clarity.
“It was so clear I started to write” his story, she said. “Gen’s Book: Guide to a Good Life” then seemed to write itself over a period of three months. The book may be ordered for a requested $10 per copy. Proceeds fund a scholarship for “people who give selflessly” to care for others and nature, she said.
For more information about the retreat area, send email to Sonia Fabrigas of Mouna Farm at aiwana
artists@gmail.com.
