April, 2019 | Dog Eaters

New pounders

Posted on 04.28.19 under aniani ku'i 'ai, glass, glass poi pounders, glassblowing, ku'ai aniani

Still a technique in progress…

The freedom dividend!

Posted on 04.25.19 under $1000 freedom dividend, andrew yang

Pick up yours every month in 2021! (of course you’re going to have to vote Andrew Yang for POTUS to get it… Unless this policy is adopted by Bernie, et al)

Napualikolokelani @ Kinshicho

Posted on 04.24.19 under george holokai, Halau Napualikolokelani, hula, Junko Wong, Uncategorized

The George Holokai Lei Aloha Festival is a celebration of the legacy of George Kananiokeakua Holokai & May Day. He was very active with the May Day celebrations in Hawai`i for many years.

May 1st is celebrated throughout the northern hemisphere as a spring festival and is
usually a public holiday however, in Hawai`i it is called Lei day. A celebration by wearing a fresh flower lei and music, dance a pageantry. Festivities include a lei queen and her court, lei contests and music, dances of many the ethnicities that make up Hawai`i’s melting pot.

There are classes conducted in the making of pahu drums, ipu heke `ole & ipu heke, pounding tapa, pa`i ai, cooking Hawaiian food and lei making. Artisans from Hawai`i who carve wood, making luahala bracelets, coconut hats. A guest can learn to hula, dance a Tahitian ori, learn to twirl Maori poi, or tititorea, a Samoan sasa. There is even a holoku parade.

Napualikolokelani, under the direction of Junko Wong, danced for 30 minutes.

Lei and flower master, Umahana sensei, whips a hair ornament together.

Kunewa Mook, kumu of Hula Halau O Kamuela dances.

A Showa era feeling in the new Reiwa era

Posted on 04.15.19 under Nakano, Renga Zaka

The Showa Era was the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) from December 25, 1926 until his death on January 7, 1989. World War II and the modernization of Japan is also encompassed during this period of time.

Heisei Era followed and will end on April 30, 2019 when the Emperor Akihito of Japan is set to abdicate and will transition into the Reiwa era. Crown Prince Naruhito will take the throne on May 1, 2019 and the Reiwa era will start.

The kanji characters for Reiwa are derived from the Man’yōshū, an eighth-century (Nara period) anthology of waka poetry. The headnote attached to a group of 32 poems (815–846) in Volume 5 of the collection, composed on the occasion of a poetic gathering to view the plum blossoms.

English translation:

It was in new spring, in a fair (“Rei”) month,
When the air was clear and the wind a gentle (“wa”) breeze.
Plum flowers blossomed a beauty’s charming white
And the fragrance of the orchids was their sweet perfume.