Yoshimitsu Takei dug out his father's poetry scrolls from the family's Manoa Valley basement and packed them into a computer printer box yesterday for a quick drive to the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i in Mo'ili'ili.

Takei cannot read his father's works. And neither can Takei's 16-year-old, third-generation, sansei son, who is studying Chinese at Punahou School, not Japanese.

So Takei, like dozens of other families that are letting go of once-cherished kimonos, dishes and Japanese artworks, donated the 20 scrolls yesterday to the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i for its annual Things Japanese Sale to help the once-financially struggling, nonprofit center.

"They are sentimental," Takei said. "But since I can't read them and there's no chance that anyone in our family can read them or appreciate them, I'd like to make them available to a wider audience. I just didn't want to throw them away."

The Things Japanese Sale enters its sixth and largest year. So far, more than 1,000 items have been donated for a sale that has been extended this year to nearly a month, from Dec. 10 through Jan. 8.

Many of the items were likely the centerpieces of family celebrations but were stored away for decades in musty closets. They tell the stories of modest, midcentury celebrations and high-end ceremonies in the form of a gold-embroidered wedding kimono that Barbara Ishida, the center's gift shop manager, appraised at $5,000.

Now, in the light of modern-day Honolulu, Ishida hopes the items will be appreciated by somebody else — perhaps even the next generation of Japanese-Americans in Hawai'i.

"Many of the people say they don't have the space because they live in a small condominium or apartment," Ishida said. "That means we're getting carloads of items that are very nice quality. Even the Japanese nationals that come into the (gift) shop say, 'My goodness, even in Japan we don't see some of these things and here you have them here in Hawai'i.' "

Christymari Takemune, the center's gallery director, donated "boxes and boxes" of bowls, boys day dolls, dishes and household items for the sale after her parents and grandmother moved from their home in Kalihi to a smaller townhouse in Waikele.

Some of the items were omiyage given over the years to Takemune's father, Hubert Maeda, for his business, Maeda Fish Market in A'ala. Along with everything else, they ended up being tucked away for years and finally ended up with Takemune, who likes them but doesn't have the space to display or store them.

"People gave us these things but what do you do with them?" Takemune said. "Then all of my grandmother's items were given to me."

Some are worthy of an art gallery.

The Robyn Buntin of Honolulu Gallery on Beretania Street this year donated $30,000 worth of scrolls, prints and original paintings to the center for various fundraising events, including the Things Japanese Sale.

"They've been struggling for a couple of years after being $9 million in debt and, of course, we want to make sure the center survives," said Buntin's son, Tusha, who assists the instructors at the Japanese Cultural Center's kendo dojo.

In 2002, the center faced a $9 million debt that placed it in financial crisis and threatened its survival. But the center escaped the possible sale of its building after a group called the Committee to Save the Center raised more than $6 million over a 47-day period and got four lending institutions to forgive $1.5 million of interest.

This year, in better financial times, people like Tusha and Buntin want to continue to donate.

"I wish to help the center," Tusha said, "so we went through our inventory and pulled things that would be appropriate for the sale."

Others like Takei only had to go as far as his Manoa Valley basement, where his father's works were under assault.

Takei's father, Tokiji Takei, went by the pen name Takei Sojin when his poetry was published and he worked with Japanese poetry clubs in Honolulu. Over the years his ink-and-brush poetry scrolls were relegated to the basement of the family home he built in 1950, along with other poetry Tokiji Takei collected before World War II.

"We didn't display them," Yoshimitsu Takei said. "We just had them in a box in the basement. They were sitting there for years and we lost a lot because the worms got to them. So we had to throw away a lot of stuff."

Now that he's cleaned out the basement, Takei hopes the surviving scrolls will end up in the hands of someone who appreciates them.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.