Da Kine Stuff

Our Turn

The following story comes from the work of the Pāilina ‘ohana/Pō‘aialoha Committee. It is an amazing story.

The Case of the Mysterious Headstone

No one knows for certain when or how the headstone inscribed in Japanese first appeared on the grounds of the church. For many years it was hidden behind the hale ‘āina. Where had it come from and why was it brought here? How many years had it been hidden under brush and vines before anyone noticed it?

Members of the Pāilina ‘ohana/Pō‘aialoha Committee had no clues. However, accustomed to tracking down unknowns about headstones and gravesites in our cemetery, the committee decided to unravel the mystery of the lost and forgotten headstone. We reasoned that the person commemorated on the stone was not a kupuna of Mākena. Because we did not want to leave it abandoned in a pile of miscellaneous discarded materials, we began our search to identify a proper home where the headstone might be placed.

Noriko Stiene, formerly of Mākena and now living in San Marcos, California, was asked to translate the inscription. Noriko found that the headstone memorialized a young lady named Mitsue. Mitsue died at the age of 20 on November 14, 1929. Her father's first name was Toyokichi. His last name could not be clearly read. Mitsue was his second daughter.

Wow! We realized right away that the 77th anniversary of her death was fast approaching. We had to find a home for her marker.

Some of us were asking ourselves: "Why had Mitsue died so young and who might her family have been?" "Why hadn't her family come looking for the headstone?" Inscribed as it was, the headstone itself would have been very costly in 1929.

Others were thinking that maybe her family wasn't involved anyway. Could it have been that Mitsue's headstone had been unearthed during the Wailea development of the 1970's? And could it have been that it was brought to Keawala‘i by the developers at the same time as the remains of the young woman in the canoe who was placed in a gravesite near our columbarium?

We were getting nowhere in our speculations. Then, intuiting that Mitsue was probably a Buddhist, Auntie Laurie Chang contacted the Reverend Daien Soga of the Kahului Hongwanji Mission for advice. When we indicated to Reverend Sogathat the tombstone may have come from Wailea, he pointed out that Wailea would have been in the Pu‘unēnē Hongwanji Mission's jurisdiction at that time.

We discovered in our work with Reverend Soga that he had a document in his office tracing the history of the Pu‘unene Hongwanji Mission. The document showed that after 62 years of devoted service, the Pu‘unēnē mission closed its doors and merged with the Kahului mission in 1972. The merger occurred during the years when plantation families were leaving the sugar plantation camps and moving to the newly established "Dream City," known today as Kahului. Reverend Soga then indicated he would find a place for the headstone within the temple grounds.

Hulō!! Eureka! Reverend Soga was graciously offering a proper home for Mitsue's headstone. He visited our church grounds to see, photograph, and read the stone. Later he telephoned to say that he had found the entry of her death and funeral service in records passed on from the Pu‘unēnē mission.

This charming and patient man identified and translated more kanji that were a part of the inscription on the headstone. We learned that Mitsue's family name was Kuwano and that she was a disciple of Buddha. The prefecture, county, city, village, and very district of her natal home in Japan were inscribed on the stone, but nothing was noted about her residence in Hawai‘i.

The inscription carried only her father's name. In the Hongwanji tradition, only her date of her death, not birth, was included on the headstone. It was fascinating to learn all of this information and history.

On November 1, 2006 Pat Dawson loaded the headstone onto Judd Morren's truck. Then Judd, Auntie Laurie, Phil Brown and Elise Teagle drove up to Kahului to deliver the headstone to Reverend Soga. It began to rain heavily just as we arrived at the Kahului Hongwanji Mission. We felt the rain was a blessing sent by Akua and Buddha for bringing the memory of this young lady back to her community. Reverend Soga placed the gravestone at the base of the temple's columbarium which he then invited us to visit.

We wonder and wish we knew more about the Pu‘unēnē Hongwangji Mission grounds as well as Mitsue. Was there a graveyard in Pu‘unēnē? If so, where all the headstones today? Did Mitsue come to Hawai‘i with family or was she a picture bride? Where are her remains?

And finally we wondered if her headstone was originally in a graveyard in Pu‘unēnē. This question was raised after Kahu Kealahou Alika told us he had heard that the previous building which stood where Hale O Kukahiko is today was built out of materials from one of the old plantation buildings that was once located near the Pu‘unēnē mill. He said that Mitsue's headstone may have been inadvertently brought to Keawala‘i at the time that the plantation building was taken apart and rebuilt here in Mākena.

That's the story or at least as much of it as we can relate to you today. Reverend Soga is going to let us know if any members of the Kuwano family are still living on Maui. Questions aside, one fact is certain: Mitsue's gravestone is now in a place where it belongs! Mahalo Ke Akua.