Japan sending its best to festival

• Japan's finest floats on parade

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Derived from the Japanese word tatematsuru, or offering, the Tatemon (Uozu Spinning Lantern float) from Toyama Prefecture is considered a Japanese national treasure. The Tatemon, made of more than 90 lanterns, is 53 feet high and weighs 1.8 tons. Eighty men pull and spin it through the streets, offering it for a good harvest and for the safety of fishermen at sea. • • • Honolulu Festival 6-7 p.m. Friday (opening ceremony) Honolulu Hale Live entertainment, Japanese food and health fair exhibit, displays (Uozu tatemon "spinning lantern" float, flower arrangements, crafts) 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday Hawai'i Convention Center Displays (Uneme Taiko giant drum), performances by hula halau and koto players 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday Ala Moana Center Live entertainment, food and health exhibit, displays 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday Hawai'i Convention Center Music and dance by performers from Japan 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday Ala Moana Center 5-9 p.m. Sunday Kapi'olani Park Food booths and live entertainment Grand Finale Parade starts at 5 p.m. Sunday. Route is on Kalakaua Avenue from Saratoga Road to Kapahulu Avenue

The Honolulu Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday, is valuable in more ways than one: Organizers estimate it brings $10 million into the state's economy.

This year's eighth Honolulu Festival will involve 3,800 participants from Japan, Honolulu Festival Foundation executive director Charin Tomomitsu said.

"It's the most ever," she said. "These people truly enjoy what they're doing, and the appreciation of the Hawai'i people for what they do is their reward."

Keith Vieira, vice president and director of operations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Hawai'i, said festival participants probably account for about half the total number of people from Japan who come for the event. He estimates the total number of visitors at 6,000 to 8,000, and calls the $10 million value estimate "conservative."

"I think it's probably higher," said Vieira, a Honolulu Festival Foundation board member. "The early bookings tells us (Japanese visitors) are coming for the festival."

Honolulu Festival performances, demonstrations and exhibits at the Hawai'i Convention Center, Ala Moana Center and Kapi'olani Park are free and open to the public. The grand finale on Sunday includes a night parade through Waikiki with spectacular main-attraction floats from three different festivals in Japan.

The two-mile parade, featuring retired University of Hawa'i baseball coach Les Murakami as the grand marshal, starts at 5 p.m. at Saratoga Road. It will move along Kalakaua Avenue to Kapahulu Avenue. KHON-TV plans live coverage of the parade, 6-7 p.m.

"With 5,000 people, it's one of our bigger international parades here," said parade organizer Nelson Fujio, who calls the participation and enthusiasm of the visitors a "gift from Japan."

"To see what we have from Japan each year in this parade, you would have to go to different festivals at different times of the year," Fujio said. "Here, it's a one-stop shop. Even visitors from Japan look forward to it because they have the opportunity to see attractions from several festivals at once."

The Uneme Taiko, a two-ton giant drum with a diameter of 10 feet, has been brought to Hawai'i for the first time from Koriyama in Fukushima prefecture, where the annual Uneme Taiko Matsuri is held.

Two other significant floats — the Tatemon from Toyama Prefecture and the Kantou from Akita prefecture — are in the parade for a second year. Considered to be a national treasure of Japan, the Tatemon is a 53-foot tall "spinning lantern float" weighing 1.8 tons. The Kantou is a 50-foot high lantern float.

The Honolulu Festival was established to promote cultural understanding, economic cooperation and ethnic harmony between Hawai'i and Japan.

The first two festivals, in 1995 and 1996, were held at the Bishop Museum. The event moved to Honolulu's civic center in 1997 and 1998, and to Thomas Square for the next two years. Last year, the festival was held at the convention center.

The crowds have gotten bigger each year. The 1995 event attracted 87,500 people. Last year's festival drew 333,500, according to festival officials.

"The festival gives residents of Hawai'i and Japan a chance to rediscover their shared history, traditions and customs through music and dance, arts and crafts, and cultural displays," Tomomitsu said. "The cultural interaction is a tool to promote better understanding between people.

"Not everyone speaks the language," she added. "Music and dance crosses a lot more borders."

The Honolulu Festival Foundation, organizer of the event, was granted public-charity status last October. Money to stage the festival comes from grants, donations and fund-raisers, Tomomitsu said.

It costs "in excess of $1 million" to stage the annual event, foundation officials said.

"We have people scouting festivals in Japan," Tomomitsu noted. "We're talking massive movement for (participants from Japan) to get funding to get here. It takes a year or two, so we have to do advance planning."

In addition, more than 1,000 island residents donate their efforts to the annual project, Tomomitsu said.

Pop singer Yuri Chika of Japan, whose hit "I Cry" was composed by Hawai'i resident Ken Makuakane, performs Saturday at the convention center and Sunday after the parade at Kapi'olani Park Bandstand. Jake Shimabukuro, Robi Kahakalau, Reign, students from the Roy Sakuma Ukulele Studio and hula halau also perform during the festival.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com or phone 535-8181.

On the Web:
For a schedule of events, call 597-8100 or check the Web site honolulu-festival.com.

Japan's finest floats on parade

Uneme Taiko

The giant drum on this float comes from Koriyama in Fukushima prefecture, where the Uneme Taiko Festival has been celebrated since the Nara period (710-794 A.D.).

The story of a young woman forced to leave her true love to serve as an attendant or uneme in the emperor's court is recalled at the festival in a dance performed by 300 women alongside the huge drum. The woman escapes from the court and returns home to find her lover has killed himself. The skin of the drum that is here came from a single buffalo and took the people of Koriyama nearly three years to cure.

Uozu Tatemon

The spinning lantern float from Toyama prefecture is made of 90 lanterns arranged in the shape of a giant ship. It is one of the world's tallest and longest floats.

Eighty people are needed to pull and spin the Tatemon, which is presented for good harvest and the safety of fishermen at sea. It was introduced into Japanese folk culture 300 years ago and is still celebrated at a fisherman's Shinto shrine in the village of Suwa.

Akita Kantou

The lantern pole float from Akita prefecture consists of hundreds of rice lanterns that hang on bamboo poles, built in the shape of a grain of rice.

Participants cautiously balance the Kantou on their backs, shoulders and foreheads and maneuver the framework as a Shinto offering of cut paper or gohei is placed atop a 50-foot high tower. While musicians and onlookers marvel at the sight of the swaying Kantou, the gohei delivers its prayer for a good harvest.