June 18, 2018

Okinawan Textile Workshops at HoMA

Filed under: events — Tags: , — okinawacollection @ 12:00 PM

The Honolulu Museum of Art is currently having an exhibition titled “Lacquer and Clay: Okinawan Art.”

  • WHAT: Lacquer and Clay: Okinawan Art
  • WHEN: May 10–September 23, 2018
  • WHERE: Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania Street, Honolulu, HI 96814
  • INFO: 808-532-8700

The Honolulu Museum of Art is offering several workshops this summer.

Okinawan textile workshop

Textile Sharing 

Friday, Aug. 10, 10 a.m.-noon • Gallery 30 • Free

The museum’s curator of textiles Sara Oka will share textiles from the vault. Visiting artists from the Okinawa Traditional Textile Association will examine, discuss and share their insights.

Weaving Demonstration 

Saturday + Sunday, Aug. 11 + 12, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. • In the exhibition and in Gallery 30 • Free with museum admission

Guests can watch a visiting artist from the Okinawa Traditional Textile Association weave on a loom, as well as try their own hand at weaving on a traditional Okinawan loom, with the help of two visiting artists.

Katachiki LooChoo’s Royal Cloth Workshop 

Sunday, Aug. 12, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. • Honolulu Museum of Art School, Room 101 • $100 tuition, $75 for museum members. Registration: myhoma.org/katachiki

Learn about the “royal cloth” that was traditionally worn only in Okinawa’s royal courts. A visiting artist and an assistant from the Okinawa Traditional Textile Association will demonstrate how to create bingata (katachiki) with stencils and dyes.”

June 15, 2018

Okinawa Memorial Day Event by Hawaii United Okinawa Association

Filed under: events — Tags: — okinawacollection @ 5:00 PM

The Hawai’i United Okinawa Association will commemorate the Okinawa Memorial Day, as known as “Irei no hi / 慰霊の日” in Okinawa on June 21, 2018.

Okinawa Memorial Day

Below is the information on their flyer.

Hawaii United Okinawa Association commemorates “Irei no Hi” – Okinawa Memorial Day, remembering the lives lost during the Battle of Okinawa.

Date: June 21, 2018
(The official Irei no hi in Okinawa is June 23)
Location: Hawaii Okinawa Center
Time: Doors Open 5:30 pm, Program 6-8 pm

Sharing:

  • A heart-to-heart talk about the importance of remembering the Battle of Okinawa and the many lives lost, presented by MIS veteran Dr. Shinye Gima.
  • A video and introduction of Mrs. Betty Fumiko Tamae Ganeku (Gushikawa) and her experience of living through and surviving the Battle of Okinawa.
  • The story of a Himeyuri Butai survivor, Mrs. Janice Suetomi, who was featured in June’s Hawai’i Herald, written by Jodie Ching. (Jodie Chiemi Ching, “Living to Tell the Story of War and the Importance of Life and Peace,” Hawai’i Herald, June 13, 2018, https://www.thehawaiiherald.com/lead-story-himeyuri-survivor-janice-suetomi/.
  • Opening performance by Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko Hawaii.

Free and open to the public

Please RSVP via link at huoa.org, google doc link below, or Facebook

Pre-Order Bentos are Available for purchase:
1) Mini (teri beef, boneless teri chicken, rice, shoga) – $7
2) Large (boneless kalbi, boneless teri chicken, rice, takuan) – $12
3) Vegetarian (tofu vegetable stair fry and vegetarian yakisoba) – $8

Bento deadline: June 18, mail payment to:
HUOA – Irei no Hi, 94-587 Ukee St., Waipahu, HI 96797
RSVP/Bento Form at https://goo.gl/forms/cRmHI9TxwVOkAybw1

Questions? Call HUOA: 808-676-5400 Email: ireinohi@gmail.com

June 1, 2018

Japanese Film about Senaga Kamejirō

Filed under: news,resources,Uncategorized — Tags: , , — okinawacollection @ 7:00 AM

A film titled “The man the United States feared most: Kamejirō” was released in Japan.

Title (rough translation): The Man the United States Feared the Most: (Senaga) Kamejirō” [= 米軍（アメリカ）が最も恐れた男：その名は、カメジロー」

The film’s Official Site: http://www.kamejiro.ayapro.ne.jp/

The site explains the life and beliefs of Senaga (瀬長) Kamejirō (亀次郎), who was born in 1907 in Tomigusuku, Okinawa and died in 2001. An article titled “Achieving Reversion: Protest and Authority in Okinawa, 1952-70” by Christopher Aldous (2003) explains why the US Government feared Kamejiō. Aldous writes,

The 1950s were a decade of harsh military rule in Okinawa, a period in which an embryonic reversion movement was quickly suppressed, when villages were levelled by bulldozers to make way for US military facilities, and, most revealingly, when a democratically elected mayor, Senaga Kamejiro, with radical left-wing credentials, was forced out of office by the American authorities. In short, it was a time of political polarization, caused above all by arbitrary, oppressive military rule.

Christopher Aldous, “Achieving Reversion: Protest and Authority in Okinawa, 1952-70,” Modern Asian Studies 37, no. 2 (May 2003): 485-508, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X03002099. (To access the article, you need to have a UH ID and password).

The film is currently available only in Japan.