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FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Marcus Oshiro, right, plays Tamotsu and Jodie Yamada, Toshi in Kumu Kahua's production of "Obake."
A life of spooky
tales inspires actor
Marcus Oshiro didn't have to look far for inspiration in preparing for Kumu Kahua's current production of "Obake," which opened yesterday.
The veteran actor, who is an attorney and state legislator by day, was raised on spooky tales of obake (Japanese ghosts) and other supernatural beings.
"My uncle had an old plantation house in Kunia Village -- lots of spider webs, creaky boards, holes in the ceiling, all kinds of weird sounds -- and it was a perfect environment for telling obake stories (and) ghost stories," Oshiro said during rehearsals Monday.
"Obake" -- written by Edward Sakamoto, whose works have provided the foundation of Kumu Kahua's repertoire for years, and directed by Jim Nakamoto -- is a tribute to the ghost stories that Japanese immigrants brought to Hawaii a century ago, and to the Japanese horror movies once popular here.
'Obake'
Presented by Kumu KahuaWhere: Kumu Kahua Theatre, 46 Merchant St.
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 30
Tickets: $16, with discounts available for seniors, students and the unemployed
Call: 536-4441
Oshiro said his grandmother's home in Wahiawa was another great place to share spooky tales. "There was a Buddhist altar with the incense and the bells and everything, and that always stimulated a lot of our ghost stories when we were visiting on rainy, wet, windy nights, (telling) ghost stories with flashlights flickering on and off," he said, explaining that he also grew up with an awareness of nearby areas that were spiritually significant for native Hawaiians -- the birthing stones near Wahiawa, for one.
"We had a pig farm in Kunia, and there were always stories about different spirits in the area -- even (about) pigs coming back to haunt us if we mistreated them or didn't feed them properly. My grandmother believed if we didn't end their lives properly, they would come back and haunt us. There were also stories about people seeing fireballs (in the Wahiawa area), so you always grew up with the notion that there might be spirits around."
And there were those spooky moments and vague scared-of-the-dark feelings all kids seem to share. Is there a kid alive who doesn't turn on the bedroom light before venturing over to close that gaping black portal into the unknown that is the closet?
Oshiro admits that there were times when he and his family would take pork over the Pali but that the "pork" was pigs being delivered to Windward Oahu.
"Being that we were pig farmers, we had to (take them over the Pali), and it was the most curious thing because we would kid each other and hope that the truck wouldn't stop. My uncle would shift gears going down the backside, and we would get scared and wonder if we should throw one of the pigs out."
OTHER SPOOKY places included Morgan's Corner on Old Pali Road and a statue in the Mililani area that was believed to move at midnight.
"And (people) who worked in the pineapple fields at night never wanted to be at the end of the boom because of the obake out there in the pine fields," Oshiro said. "There were stories of people disappearing, or they'd be found later by the side of the road and they don't recall how they got there."
With all that to build on, Oshiro had no problem getting into the character of a Japanese man named Tamotsu who gets involved with obake while working on the Big Island in the 1920s. Nani Morita co-stars in the production. Sun Min Chun, Shawn Thomson and Jodie Yamada complete the cast.
Oshiro says he was a jock in high school and got into acting on a dare when he appeared in "The Diary of Anne Frank" during his senior year. He met director Nakamoto almost 20 years ago when he took an acting class that Nakamoto was teaching at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and has enjoyed acting ever since. He was seen most recently onstage at Kumu Kahua in 2000 when he played an edgy Korean War veteran in "Dead of Night," Sakamoto's controversial look at the use of organized violence by labor union organizers in Hawaii in the 1950s.
"My parents were shocked at the (crude) language and the violence ... but I thought there were some good messages in there. What's interesting (to me) in my legislative capacity (is that) I now chair the Labor and Public Employment Committee, so it kind of gave me some background to some of the early notions of organized labor back when the ILWU was getting started in Hawaii.
"(Doing theater) is what I enjoy doing. It's for fun, something that's healthy for me, energizes me and conveys a story," Oshiro said in explaining how getting into a character -- hero or villain -- gives him a chance to step away from his dual careers.
"It's fun to get into another psyche, another person, and bring that person to life. One of the things I need to do in the process is to be really honest with myself about who I am as a person and build the character from that base so I can become that person. It's work, it's discipline, but it's the same discipline I bring to my legislative role and to my role as an attorney or anything else."
Oshiro is taking several steps away from reality in getting into the character of Tamotsu, a Japanese immigrant who finds himself reduced in status, his skills and abilities unappreciated by the Caucasian ruling class, after he comes to Hawaii and takes a "picture bride" as his wife. What's a proud man to do?
Oshiro said his wife helped him get inside the character of Sakamoto's bitter issei protagonist. "She's very supportive. ... (She) helped me learn all these lines, also. I'm thinking about her every night (when I'm) onstage."
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