United Okinawa Association
Twenty years ago, only a handful of Okinawan women had hand
tattoos like the woman above. Tattoo designs varied by area.

Marked with tradition

Star-Bulletin

The past meets the present this weekend as the Hawaii United Okinawa Association's 17th Okinawan Festival comes to Kapiolani Park 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The festival cultural tent will provide historical insight into language, calligraphy, tattooing and genealogy, among other displays.

The entertainment schedule includes a "Celebrity Kachashi" dance contest 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Some of Hawaii's media personalities will get to show their stuff in this free-style Okinawan dance.

A parade of Hawaii United Okinawa Association club banners and paranku drummers will open the festival at 10:45 a.m. Saturday.

United Okinawa Association
Shown are the Oshima version, left, and the Ie Jima tattoos,
right They were modified during a woman's life to celebrate
events like the birth of her first grandchild.

A broad selection of food will be available, from traditional Okinawan offerings like anadagi (the Okinawan doughnut) and pigs feet soup, to hybrids like the Oki dog (a hotdog and chili wrapped in a soft tortilla with shoyu pork and lettuce), to local fare like laulau with rice and lomilomi salmon.

Nonstop entertainment also is planned.

And back at the cultural tent, there will be a display of hand tattoo patterns from different regions. Okinawans believed the tattoos made young women so unattractive that kidnapping pirates would leave them alone. Over the centuries, there were periodic government attempts to discourage the practice, but it was not outlawed until 1899. In a 1980 survey, only a half dozen elderly women in remote islands off Okinawa were found to have the tattoos.

Visitors to the cultural tent can also have their pictures taken in a Okinawan kimono with a traditional headpiece or a paranku drummers costume. Photos are $20 each for the first shot and $10 for each additional shot. They will be offered from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday and 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday. Polaroid shots will be offered for $5 each 2 to 4 pm. Saturday and 10 a.m. to noon Sunday.

The association will provide free shuttle service from the Kapiolani Community College parking lot to the festival grounds at the Kapiolani Bandstand. The shuttle will operate from 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, and 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

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