ISLE PROFILE
Helping build better bodies
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Mits and Dot Kawashima managed a gym for 31 years and currently run a health-food store, but they find time to plan the state's most prestigious bodybuilding competition. The Hawaiian Islands championship is Saturday.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser Show facts What: 24th Annual 2002 Hawaiian Islands Bodybuilding Championship When: Saturday Time: Doors open at 5 p.m., show starts at 6:30 Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall Tickets: All seats reserved, $41, $36, $31, $26, $21 Other Guest Performers: Bodybuilder Johnnie Jackson, National 2001 overall winner; Tanji Johnson, National 2001 overall fitness winner; Hillel Gitter, Balloon man. Information: Mits' Basic Foods, 536-2887 Wanted: Subjects for Isle Profile On Tuesdays throughout the summer, The Honolulu Advertiser will feature accounts of those who have performed or contributed significantly in the Hawai'i sports world. We are looking for teams or individuals in a wide variety of sports. If you know of a deserving athlete or team, please contact us at one of the following: by e-mail: by phone: 535-8533 by fax: 525-5491 by letter: Honolulu Advertiser |
- Manage their health-food store on Keawe Street six days a week.
- Work out for an hour-and-a-half on Sundays.
- Plan the state's most prestigious bodybuilding competition.
To the Kawashimas, that's a short list compared to years before, when managing one of O'ahu's premier gyms for 31 years was a 12-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week endeavor.
Today, the couple has slowed down — somewhat.
"People tell me, 'Mits, you should retire.' I tell them, 'Get away from me. I don't like that attitude,' " said Mits, youthful at 84. "Age is nothing. You have to be active. Life is much more rosier when you're active."
What has been keeping the Kawashimas active for the past 24 years is organizing the Hawaiian Islands Bodybuilding Championship, which will be held Saturday at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.
The championship, a qualifier for national competitions, lures local and national bodybuilders and fitness champions, many of whom come just for the Kawashimas.
The most notable participant over the years has been longtime family friend Arnold Schwarzenegger, who emceed the first seven championships before he attained Hollywood stardom.
"I knew him when he didn't speak English," Mits said, with a laugh, about his friend of 34 years.
Despite his superstar status, Schwarzenegger continues to support the championship — and the Kawashimas — by sending his support via video, which is broadcast during the event.
The most unselfish person
This year's event holds a particular sentiment for the Kawashimas.
On June 2 their only daughter, Karen Mae Hirasa, died of stomach cancer. She was 55.
Hirasa managed Mits' Basic Foods, a store the Kawashimas had planned to give to her after they retired.
Hirasa is survived by two children and a granddaughter.
Her death deeply affected the Kawashimas, prompting them to dedicate Saturday's championship to her memory.
"She was the most unselfish person, always thinking about others," said Mits, quietly. "Everyone loved her."
More than 450 people attended Hirasa's funeral three weeks ago at Hosoi Garden Mortuary in Nu'uanu, the crowd overflowing into two adjacent rooms. Powerlifters, Olympians, strongman competitors, champion bodybuilders — everyone who knew the family came to the service. Schwarzenegger, who had visited Hirasa in the hospital weeks earlier, gave the family eulogy.
The outpouring of support overwhelmed the Kawashimas.
"Every day we shed a tear; you have to do that," Mits said. "You have to let it out. We miss her badly."
Started at internment camp
Health and fitness have always been an important part of Mits Kawashima's life. He started playing sports and lifting weights when he was a teenager in San Francisco.
But he never considered fitness a career until he was interned during World War II.
Relocated to Heart Mountain, Wyo., in 1942, Mits requested gym equipment for the camp. He started a gym in the same room as the dentist office. (Dropping the heavy weights wasn't good for patients sitting in the dentist chair, Mits recalled.)
While in camp he met Miki Azuma, who was from Hawai'i. Azuma convinced Mits to move to Hawai'i with him after the war.
Released in 1946, Mits found himself in Waikiki, with plans of starting his own gym.
Then he met Dot.
"She was the only girl I ever met who made me feel completely at ease," Mits recalled.
Dot had moved to O'ahu from Hilo in 1944, working in a dressmaking shop on Kapi'olani Boulevard. Mits took one look at Dot's 98-pound frame and thought, "She's a good prospect for the gym ... and she's got great legs."
So Mits pursued.
"He called me every day at 2:30 p.m.," said Dot, 78, with a smile.
Within five weeks of their first meeting, they were married.
"Hey, if you know what you want, you go get it," Mits said.
Focus turns to food
In 1948 Mits and Azuma opened their first gym on the corner of King and Pi'ikoi. Two years later Mits bought out his partner, moving the gym three times before finally leaving the business in 1979. The doors to Mits' Health Studio, its final stop on Ward Avenue, never opened again.
That year he entered the health food business, selling vitamins, power bars and supplements to the fitness-crazed masses. Mits' Basic Foods, formerly in Manoa, is now located in the Hawai'i Athletic Club on Keawe Street in Kaka'akoe.
"I like the satisfaction of seeing people come in with different problems ... and seeing results," Mits said.
The Kawashimas can't get away from the industry that has shaped their lives, giving them memories and a stable of loyal friends.
The Hawaiian Islands Bodybuilding Championship is their way of "staying in the game," Mits said. "I didn't want to give that up when I gave up the gym."
