Our Honolulu
Iida's store a purveyor of tradition

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

More than a store reopened yesterday when Iida's completed a move in the Ala Moana Center to the ground level beside JC Penney. Hawai'i's traditions got another chance.

You still know where to find carp banners for Boys Day and Japanese dolls for Girls Day. If you lose your lucky Las Vegas frog, don't worry; Iida's has plenty. A rice-paper lantern for O-Bon? You got it.

The family who owns and runs the store is the same one who started it in 1900, nursed it through the bubonic plague fire that year, held it together during anti-Japanese hysteria of World War II, and helped launch the Ala Moana Center.

What happens when customers shop at Iida's is acculturation that moves in all directions. People in Hawai'i buy carp banners not just for Boys Day on May 5 but all year around as windsocks.

That's why Japanese tourists break out their cameras at Iida's when they see carp banners on display in December. To them it's like hiring a Santa Claus on July 4.

Taking kaeru, lucky frogs, to Las Vegas is another Japanese tradition that Iida's has helped other people assimilate into their own. "Kaeru" can also mean "come back," as in placing your money on a bet. When Las Vegas became popular, the kaeru business boomed at Iida's.

Robert Iida, president and manager, third generation, sometimes has to discourage people from buying things.

Say a Mainland couple wants that beautiful blue chochin to hang in the house. Iida explains that this is not appropriate. Such paper lanterns are hung only at the cemetery or at altars in honor of ancestors during O-Bon.

Sugar plantation workers once rode to Honolulu on the train to buy their rice bowls at Iida's.

Now most people eat their rice off plates. The business in Japanese dishware has slumped. But Iida's carries a large selection, because when a grandmother buys a wooden handle for her old teapot, she's not just buying a teapot handle. She is preserving a family heirloom that will pass on to her grandchildren.

Each dish is still individually wrapped in newspaper. Party favors for celebrations such as yakudoshi, for men at age 41, are wrapped in fancy paper stamped for the occasion.

To move the store and reopen is for the Iida family a declaration of determination to provide the tools with which customers can carry on traditions. Family members even teach young customers the traditions themselves.

There's a fierce-looking image with a round, red head called daruma. He meditated so long, he lost the use of his eyes and limbs. A daruma is the symbol of perseverance, given to students graduating from high school to help them through college.

One eye is painted in. When the student has achieved his goal, he can paint in the other eye. A one-eyed daruma is an appropriate gift for the reopening of Iida's.

Reach Bob Krauss at bkrauss@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8073.