LIHUE — Ken Shimonishi, the county’s Director of Finance, had no choice but to show up Saturday for the cleanup of the little Japanese Garden located outside the American Job Center.
“He had no choice,” said Art Umezu, the Kauai liaison for Hawaii Gannenmono, or the 150th anniversary of the first Japanese arrivals in Hawaii in 1868. “Ken’s grand-
uncle, J.K. Shimonishi, was the one who created this Isenberg Japanese Garden in the 1970s in commemoration of the opening of the Lihue Shopping Center. He also donated the usu, or stone bowl, that is part of the garden. The Lihue Shopping Center is now the Lihue Civic Center.”
Shimonishi joined about a dozen volunteers from the Japanese Cultural Society, the Kauai Bonsai Club and Umezu in sprucing up the garden which goes largely unnoticed in daily life. The cleanup was part of the Kauai Gannenmono observance.
The garden will be rededicated on the opening of the Hawaii Nikkei Legacy, a photographic exhibit of the
Japanese-American culture, presented by the Nisei Veterans Legacy at Kukui Grove Center in September.
“I was here when they built this,” said Lelan Nishek of Kauai Nursery and Landscaping, who oversaw the cleanup with offers of material to get the garden back to its original splendor. “Clint Childs was the manager of the place that had Lihue Store located on one end. Woolworth’s was in the area where the Division of Motor Vehicles is, and they even had fish in the pond.”
Two of the highlight features of the garden are the torii gate, and a stone lantern brought to Kauai from Japan by Pastor Hans Isenberg and his wife Dora. Isenberg was the manager of Lihue Plantation Co., and the torii and lantern were originally placed in the Isenberg’s garden in Molokoa.
The stone lantern stood outside Lihue Store for many years before being donated for the park by Dora Jane Isenberg Cole, a descendent of the Lihue Plantation founders.
“In Japanese landscaping, things are round,” said Amil Valpoon of the Kauai Bonsai Club. “We’re going to try and get the landscaping so it’s not so squared off (a result of using hedge trimmers to maintain), and try to open things up so we can see some of the inside details.”
The Hawaii Gannenmono celebration is being presented by the Consulate-Geneal of Japan in Honolulu with support from the Japan-America Society of Hawaii and the Japanese Cultural Society of Hawaii.
Kauai launched its Gannenmono celebration in June when the arrival of Japan Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko in Honolulu coincided with a get-together coordinated by the Yamaguchi Kenjin Kai club.
The Kauai Buddhist Council bon dances feature a gannenmono banner flying over the festivities, and a special tribute to Gannenmono will be done at Matsuri Kauai Festival on Sept. 22 at the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
