Hikari no Michi (Path of Light)
Rooted in ‘Ōlelo No‘eau #804: He manu ke aloha, ʻaʻohe lālā kau ʻole. (Love is like a bird- there is no branch that it does not perch upon. Love is an emotion shared by all.)
Click image to view film
Reverend Gensho Hara, Lāhainā Jodo Mission & his daughter, Yayoi Hara
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Following the August 2023 wildfires, several groups and individuals reached out to request our Hui Mo‘olelo workshop and story recording approach as a way to help process the experience. In 2024, Yayoi Hara participated in our collaborative Hui Mo‘olelo: Lāhaina program with the Lahaina Restoration Foundation and captured this talk-story with her father, Gensho Hara. Professional artists submitted proposals to bring their story to life as a short, animated film. Upon selection by a community panel, artists Jenna Lee, Syril Pecson, Zach Quemado, and Abby Worthley of the School of Cinematic Arts – University of Hawai'i at Mānoa entered a period of project development to infuse their proposal in Lāhainā history, culture and sense of place -- ultimately resulting in a freely accessible work created through community engagement. The final animated short was unveiled at the 2025 Hui Mo‘olelo: Lahaina Film Festival. Listen to the originating conversation below:
• Full Recording HERE • Translated transcript HERE |
Artist Statement: 光の道 (Hikari no Michi), or Path of Light, is an animated short film dedicated to the memories of Lāhainā Jodo Mission. In this work we commemorate Reverend Gensho Hara’s 60 years of service to the temple and the community he fostered within it. Through a narrative path of light, we explore and celebrate moments in time that have been lost to the Lāhainā fire. While the loss is immense, this is not to say that hope is lost. Our intention is to uplift, depicting the way love within the community of Lāhainā persists even through tragedy. 光の道 encapsulates the essence of our project: A hopeful path forward.
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From the Project Proposal: We believe that films are a glimpse into the culture, community, and lives of those who create them. Working hand in hand to bring the stories of others to life allows our animators to educate and immerse themselves into walks of life that we may not otherwise see.
Our team dedicates themselves to understanding the spectrum, intersections, and nuance of human experience and emotion. Each of our animators has worked and engaged in collaborative art projects within our own communities, and we intend to continue this work further. We hope to represent SCA as best as we possibly can. What we found most meaningful while learning about this opportunity was Maui Public Art Corps’ drive to share the mo‘olelo of kama'aina that give a glimpse into a life we may not know today. Creating art is a way to keep these stories alive, to ensure these memories are not lost to time. As young adults in Hawaiʻi, our team believes it is crucial to get involved with our community in this way. |
What we found most meaningful while learning about this opportunity was Maui Public Art Corps’ drive to share the mo‘olelo of kama'aina that give a glimpse into a life we may not know today. Creating art is a way to keep these stories alive, to ensure these memories are not lost to time. As young adults in Hawaiʻi, our team believes it is crucial to get involved with our community in this way.
The Hui Mo‘olelo of Reverend Gensho Hara and his daughter, Yayoi Hara, shares the story of the Lahaina Jodo Mission. The highlighted excerpt from this recording provides a quote from Rafu Shinpou, a Los-Angeles based Japanese newspaper, read aloud by Reverend Gensho Hara. The author reflects upon their experience at the temple; “I pondered the days gone by, wondering when this temple was built and what kind of people had come here”. Emphasized is the admiration, faith, and love that was created within the Lahaina Jodo Mission community, built up from the ground by Reverend Gensho Hara in his 60 years of service to the temple. The author’s detailed explanations create a visual of a point in time, now lost to the Lahaina fire. Our animation team intends to turn this story into an animated short film in hopes of sharing the beauty and impact of Reverend Gensho Hara and the Lahaina Jodo Mission, as well as calling attention to the immense loss caused in the fire. In the service of awareness and a call to action, we want to depict the way in which the community of Lahaina continues to persist through hardship. The specifics of the visuals and narrative we create in our film will be worked out in communication with those directly related to the mo‘olelo.
"I was raised to experience my Japanese heritage through Hawaiʻi’s local lens. My last Japanese-speaking relatives lived three generations before me: my great grandparents that immigrated from Japan to Hawaiʻi. Subsequently, the language was never passed down to me. Growing up with this experience fueled my interest in the Japanese language and my passion for hearing and sharing the stories of other Japanese people in Hawaiʻi. Although we share our Japanese ancestry, our experiences have the capacity to, and often prove to be, vastly different. I want to learn more about the Lahaina Jodo Mission and more about the stories of those who experienced it firsthand. I want to produce an animation that is a love letter to those memories. By sharing Reverend Gensho Hara’s story, I will share a story not only to the islands, but for all people of Japanese descent and beyond." -- Jenna Lee
The Hui Mo‘olelo of Reverend Gensho Hara and his daughter, Yayoi Hara, shares the story of the Lahaina Jodo Mission. The highlighted excerpt from this recording provides a quote from Rafu Shinpou, a Los-Angeles based Japanese newspaper, read aloud by Reverend Gensho Hara. The author reflects upon their experience at the temple; “I pondered the days gone by, wondering when this temple was built and what kind of people had come here”. Emphasized is the admiration, faith, and love that was created within the Lahaina Jodo Mission community, built up from the ground by Reverend Gensho Hara in his 60 years of service to the temple. The author’s detailed explanations create a visual of a point in time, now lost to the Lahaina fire. Our animation team intends to turn this story into an animated short film in hopes of sharing the beauty and impact of Reverend Gensho Hara and the Lahaina Jodo Mission, as well as calling attention to the immense loss caused in the fire. In the service of awareness and a call to action, we want to depict the way in which the community of Lahaina continues to persist through hardship. The specifics of the visuals and narrative we create in our film will be worked out in communication with those directly related to the mo‘olelo.
"I was raised to experience my Japanese heritage through Hawaiʻi’s local lens. My last Japanese-speaking relatives lived three generations before me: my great grandparents that immigrated from Japan to Hawaiʻi. Subsequently, the language was never passed down to me. Growing up with this experience fueled my interest in the Japanese language and my passion for hearing and sharing the stories of other Japanese people in Hawaiʻi. Although we share our Japanese ancestry, our experiences have the capacity to, and often prove to be, vastly different. I want to learn more about the Lahaina Jodo Mission and more about the stories of those who experienced it firsthand. I want to produce an animation that is a love letter to those memories. By sharing Reverend Gensho Hara’s story, I will share a story not only to the islands, but for all people of Japanese descent and beyond." -- Jenna Lee
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Community Workshop
Key to the process of developing public artwork, each artist or artist team is required to workshop their proposals with community members. In February, Maui Public Art Corps was welcomed into the classroom of Pei-Ling Kao, Department of Theatre and Dance at UH Mānoa to collaborate on a gesture drawing class with live performers. The experience garnered the attention of the school's chair of community programs, SheenRu Yong, who led the planning and development of the very first Hui Mo‘olelo Film Festival on the island of Oahu. Join us on Thursday, March 27, 2025 at Waiwai Collective for this event, free to the public from 6:30 - 8:30 pm.
Community Consultations
Hara Ohana
Project launch & ‘Ōlelo No‘eau meeting
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Pre-contract intro meeting
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Mahalo
- Hui Mo‘olelo: Lāhainā facilitators Anuhea Yagi and Kalapana Kollars
- Storytellers Reverend Gensho Hara, Lāhainā Jodo Mission & his daughter, Yayoi Hara.
- Partners County of Maui, Hale Hōʻikeʻike at the Bailey House/ Maui Historical Society and Lahaina Restoration Foundation
- Sponsors National Endowment for the Arts, HCF Maui Strong, Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and private donors of Maui Public Art Corps
- Community Consultants & panelists
- ProArts Playhouse
"Thank you everyone for selecting our interview. It is so nice to be a part of a project like this, we are uplifted by your enthusiasm and your interest. My dad wanted to share these images that were just sent to him, the first image of the President Wilson Oceanliner he traveled from Yokohama, Japan to Aloha Tower in Honolulu. The second image is on the ship, as told in there interview he and Rev. Tanaka were traveling together and coming to Hawaii as missionaries, although they were staying in coach, they were selected to dine in the first class dining hall. Although they are both ministers and in Japan had their hair shaved, they had been told that in American only prisoners had their heads shaved so let their hair grow out. They were not traveling with the women at their table, he said these women were married to Americans. Mahalo again!" -- Yayoi
Project Timeline
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