Mr. Hawaii: meet Saichi, keeper of Hawaiian culture
Sunset, July, 2004 by Chiori Santiago
In 1958, 19-year-old Saichi Kawahara abandoned small-town Hawaii forever and headed for school on the Mainland's East Coast. "I said I'd never come back," he recalls.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
He was wrong. Now known as a virtuoso singer and old-school ukulele player, he regularly tours Hawaii with his own Hawaiian band. In the intervening years, the "Aloha spirit" has followed his footsteps, traveling 3,000 miles east to foggy Kapalakiko, as Hawaiians call San Francisco.
"San Francisco has a long history with overseas Hawaiians," Saichi explains. "From the time of the old whaling industry, Hawaiians came through, jumped ship, and made it home. Now you can find a melting pot of Hawaiians representing our hula, music, and food all over California."
To keep a network of 6,000 "Hawaiians at heart" up-to-date about local outrigger-canoe races, reunions, and Polynesian festivals like this month's Tahiti Fete of San Jose, Saichi and wife Evelyn publish the quarterly Kapalakiko Productions Calendar of Hawaiian Events ($10 for a lifetime subscription; www.kapalakiko.com).
Over a 50-year career, Saichi has perfected the Hawaiian style of falsetto, a combination of "men imitating women's voices, with cowboy yodeling influences from Spanish vaqueros thrown in." With 1,000 songs in his repertoire, he can fill requests for reggae, swing numbers, and such chestnuts as "My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua Hawaii." But the nostalgic old hulas are his favorites, binding him to a past he'll never quite escape.
"I tried to get as far away as I could, and what happened?" he asks, chuckling. "I ran into Hawaiians."
Polynesian festivals
Tahiti Fete of San Jose (Jul 2-5; www.tahitifete.com or 808/935-3002); San Francisco Aloha Festival (Aug 7-8; www.pica-org.org/AlohaFest or 415/281-0221).
Most Recent Home & Garden Articles
Most Recent Home & Garden Publications
Most Popular Home & Garden Articles
- 29 Awesome things to do this summer! Lazy summer days… Who need's 'em? Not you! You've got all the time in the world, so here's how to make the best of it and beat summer boredom!
- No-Cook Homemade Ice Cream
- Mowing down mower problems - lawn mower troubleshooting
- Perfect picks: how to tell when your summer garden's ready to harvest
- Your 10 most embarrassing body questions answered: you're going through puberty , and you have questions . The only problem? You're afraid to ask! No worries—we took your most baffling body Q's to the experts for you
Most Popular Home & Garden Publications
Content provided in partnership with http://findarticles.com/source//

