(Instrumental music) Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here Aloha, I’m Kalaʻi Miller and this is Home is Here.

Living in Hawaiʻi we’re able to immerse ourselves into a variety of cultures beyond our own.

And in the Okinawan culture there’s a high-energy custom with centuries-old roots.

Eisa incorporates music, drumming, and dancing.

Members of Chinagu Eisa Hawaii tell us how this tradition has changed with the times.

Iya sasa!

Hai ya!

(Katami Bushi song) Katami kuira Chitushi madin Ichiban Justin Higa / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii Eisa drumming is a type of traditional Okinawan drumming.

It's a little different from your Japanese taiko drumming that you see because they usually have you know, two sticks and the drum on the stand, but with eisa drumming, you're holding on to the drum while dancing and hitting with it.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii It originally was during the obon season, which is in August, and that season is to celebrate the ancestral spirits coming home.

Justin Higa / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii At some point the culture was slowly dying out as the Okinawa became more modernized.

So, the government made a push to revive the culture by creating stage eisa, which sort of separated it from the cultural obon aspect of it and brought it to you know, stage performances with more modern music.

So that's what we do.

We sometimes perform at bon dances but our primary performance for eisa is more the contemporary stage setting.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii Our style and like with anything, it's become contemporary.

But you know, we always make sure we honor the traditions and the culture for bringing us to where we are today.

Shichi hachi, go roku shichi hachi (Eisa drumming) Justin Higa / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii So we have three different types of drums that we use.

One is the paarankuu.

It's a smaller, thinner drum.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii And that's the one that usually our children, and then our adult team, for seniors, and so forth, they will use that.

It's the lightest, but I always call it the most graceful.

Justin Higa / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii The next step up is the shimedaiko.

It's a little thicker, but also kind of a more handheld side.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii That's the most energetic, you know, you need a lot of stamina, because you're swinging it constantly.

So, you'll see our teen group really gravitate towards that.

There's a lot of 360 jumps with it, and so forth.

So, they have a lot of fun with that drum.

Justin Higa / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii And there are other one we call a odaiko, which is a lot bigger and we sort of sling it off of our shoulder to hold.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii I do the odaiko, which is the big drum.

And that's our power drum.

Every drum has their significance and it all just plays together.

(Eisa drumming) Justin Higa / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii In addition to the dance with the traditional drums that we have, we also have some dances that incorporate flags and dancing either with fans or just with hand movements.

The flag choreography and sometimes some of the drumming choreography it is made to incorporate some traditional Okinawan karate movements in there as well.

Chinagu Eisa, we chose that name because that word in uchinaaguchi in Okinawan culture translates to bonds, connections.

And we wanted to emphasize that with the group, we wanted to maintain the bond within the Okinawan culture.

We wanted to create connections between generations and with any sister groups or other groups that we collaborate with in in Okinawa.

So, we really thought it was important to be welcoming to any people that wanted to join.

Mehana & Makani Kaihe / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii I started doing eisa when I was around six years old.

I started eisa because I thought like the movements that they did were pretty cool.

And I wanted to try out for myself.

I just thought it was cool and just fun.

Mae Chung / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii My daughter had a has a friend and he was in eisa and he asked if she wanted her children to join eisa.

So she said yeah, they'll give it a try.

When I had brought them down and rather than just sitting down I said, oh, maybe I'll just go exercise and do the eisa with them.

And, and then I that came every week.

And then lo and behold, I loved it because I like I love I love Okinawan music and the drumming part is like kind of difficult for me but I just love Okinawan music.

(Shima Uta song) Shima uta yo kaze ni nori Tori to tomo ni umi wo watare Shima uta Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii Eisa traditionally in Okinawa, is only performed and danced by the young, kind of the younger adults.

And so for us in Hawaiʻi, you know, we and myself in particular, I really value that our kūpuna you know, our seniors, but in our group, it's funny because we just call them the adult team.

So our, our senior group, the adult team, they're the ones bringing their grandchildren.

They're the ones taking them to the Okinawan festival and all these cultural events and, and talking about the history of Okinawa and Hawaiʻi.

Mae Chung / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii Being with my my my grandchildren and my daughter and my son in law.

It became a family and it was a nice family thing that we did together.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii So, I think for any Okinawan performing group, the Okinawan festival is really that highlight of the year, right?

It's the big, one big event where there's just thousands and thousands of people.

And so, we look forward to it every year.

This is kind of, all the performances are centered around the Okinawan festival.

Mehana & Makani Kaihe / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii I like the performances a lot because it's really fun to see people and how they react about how we dance.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii Eisa drumming is a lot of fun.

It's it's it can be very exhausting.

But it's that energy you know when you're, when you're dancing together you know you're doing the heshi like the iya sasa that you can hear you really feel as one, right?

You're dancing as one.

And so, it's it is a lot of fun, it's great exercise, it's a great you know socialization, but it's just it's just fun.

Justin Higa / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii I do eisa because it's a great way to keep in touch with my Okinawan culture and my heritage.

And I've personally I've been doing it since I was about five years old.

So, it's really just been a part of my life up until now.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii You know, to continue the Okinawan traditions I, myself, I'm 100%, Okinawan.

My parents are from Okinawa.

And it's important and because as a mother, I want to make sure that they have an Okinawan festival when they grow up, and they start to have children.

You know, we're, we're such a proud and united community.

Mae Chung / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii The culture wise they they get to you know, embrace it even if they're not Okinawan.

Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii For me, it's, it's a lifestyle, you know, culture, having culture in your life.

It's very important to me, and so I want to make sure that we can perpetuate the importance of culture to the younger generations, well to everyone, because culture is part of your identity, and who you are.

And so, I hope everyone finds their own culture within them.

(Eisa drumming) Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here From celebrating culture through dance to celebrating culture through flowers.

Ikebana International’s Honolulu chapter has been sharing the art of Japanese flower arrangement for more than 60 years.

But for many members, this is more than just a hobby, it’s about finding friends.

(Instrumental music) Karen Kirk/Ikebana International Honolulu Chapter Past President Ikebana International was founded in 1956 by a woman named Ellen Gordon Allen, who was the wife of a US General.

And she wanted to find some like-minded people who she could just get together with and create flower arrangements.

And she had studied ikebana living in Japan.

And she felt like it would be good for just finding friends.

And so it kind of caught on.

Pearl Jensen was a friend of Mrs. Allen and was curious about starting a club here.

And a group of ladies got together different schools.

It was kind of easy, because Hawaiʻi is a wonderful place to create flower arrangements.

And Honolulu has been a chapter since 1961.

(Instrumental music) This particular exhibition is about baskets.

Baskets are very, very traditional in Japan, particularly.

They began with just simple lay people or farmers, who created arrangements with a basket very simple.

And eventually, many people were using baskets.

Joyce Kaneshiro/ Ikebana International Honolulu Chapter President The total of members is 105.

And the youngest is 14, Brennan Yamaguchi, and our oldest is Pat Kimoto who did an arrangement and she's sweet 101 years old.

We have male members, and you could see that they get very much into different types of ikebana.

Because it's friendship through flowers that brings everyone together.

And we share all the different types of picking your own garden flowers to buying flowers.

And there's all different types of schools that we share with each other, that we learn.

Karen Kirk /Ikebana International Honolulu Chapter Past President The oldest school is Ikenobo, which was founded almost 700 years ago and it's very traditional, very precise.

Sogetsu school is probably one of the better known ones, because it is very avant-garde.

It was founded in 1927 and so it's considered a modern school.

Ichiyo school was founded, perhaps, 10 years later.

Ohara school is more a landscape type of school, very, very traditional in terms of leaving nature as it is.

And that was founded probably 200 years ago, more or less.

So there's basic angles to a traditional or a basic arrangement, but all ikebana must show lines, space, color and mass.

Nothing is symmetrical.

They're all asymmetrical.

And if you consider nature, nothing in nature is symmetrical.

So that's why ikebana tends to be looking very simple and elegant.

Joyce Kaneshiro/ Ikebana International Honolulu Chapter President So I use the anthuriums because it symbolizes love and heart.

And that's what I chose as a main flower.

For me, I go by numbers.

I go by threes, you know, like, Trinity.

Five is, I love the number five because it means grace.

And being that I'm a seventh child I had seven, you know, monbretia.

For ikebana we're a family of friends and that's what friendship through flowers means because you share love, you share joy and you have peace when you like see each other doing the arrangement.

Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here Friendship - it isn’t just something shared between people.

Pets can also hold a special place in our hearts.

A local nonprofit is using that bond to help both people and animals find a new start in life.

(Instrumental music) Karen Tyson / KAT Charities CEO KAT Charities’ mission is to help homeless animals.

And our belief is that when people help animals, animals help people, it's two way.

I'm a clinical psychologist that works with children.

And I found that there was a magical connection between kids with disabilities and animals.

The children really, really relate to these animals, takes away the stress, and they just love spending that time with them.

And so as we grew, both my clinic and also the rescuing, we started the nonprofit so we could do more.

And that's how KAT Charities began and has evolved to now include Toe Beans.

So one of the beautiful things that we do here at Toe Beans and Dreams is we hire people with varying levels of disabilities.

I've been doing my private practice for many years now.

So when I would evaluate a child, and they were five years old, now, they're 20 years old and these kids with intellectual deficits, or autism, or things that make employment hard, I was noticing that they weren't getting jobs.

And after they aged out of the school system, I was finding that these kids now are just sitting at home, isolated, no friends, no job opportunities, because they're different.

And they need extra supports in a job environment.

So when I was seeing that all of these kids that I tested years ago are still unemployed, I knew I had to do something, I knew I had to do something.

And what we now do is we have all of these animals that we go out and personally get off the street.

And we hire these adults or young adults that have never had a job before or very rarely had any experience.

And they now get a job here with the animals.

So it's a beautiful partnership of finding homes for homeless animals and also giving opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities.

So we have kids that may not speak at all.

We have kids with profound autism.

We have others with intellectual disabilities.

We've got a very high functioning young lady with a traumatic brain injury, so her memory is poor.

We've got students who just have ADHD or dyslexia.

And so they're learning job skills and learning how to integrate into, you know, real world kind of jobs.

So we take any type of disability, we want to be here as a stepping stone for so many, not just a select few.

Beth Doughty/KAT Charities Vice President We have people that, that come in with a caretaker.

And so they do simple things like window washing.

And so we do a lot of praise and a lot of guidance.

And then we have some that can actually come back and make sandwiches and those kinds of things.

So you just kind of have to meet a person where they are and push them just a little bit.

I've worked in special education for over 13 years on the mainland, and, and so, you know, people with special needs are no different than a person without special needs, we all need consistency, and, and some people need it broken down a little bit slower.

And so I try to do that so that they, they can understand what we're asking them to do.

Some of the feedback that we've received, a lot of the parents were like, ‘I never thought that my child would be able to hold a job’.

And then to watch that particular child, make the growth that she has made in such a small amount of time, there's absolutely no reason why she wouldn't be able to go on and be employed at another place, which is super cool.

That's our, that's our goal is to give them life skills so that they can go out and be a productive member of society.

And, and, you know, they honestly - some of them know how to work the iPad better than I do.

So they're like, ‘Miss Beth, you can do it this way’.

That's fantastic.

Let me write that down.

And so being it's, it's just, it's awesome.

Because a lot of these kids are very good at technology.

And, and I'm not and so I can I can teach them but they can also teach me.

Momoka Gillis/ Works at Toe Beans & Dreams café This is my first job.

I hope to learn how to work with customers a little better.

And like how to explain the stuff about the rooms.

I've learned how to be able to talk to them and like ask if they need anything and answer questions.

Usually, I say ‘Hi’ to the cats and see how they're doing.

I've learned like how to hold the kittens and stuff and how the mom cats like carry the kittens which is cool.

Usually, a lot of people and like noises give me anxiety but when I'm with any animals really I just feel instantly calm and cared about by the animals.

(Instrumental music) Karen Tyson / KAT Charities CEO So what we do to get our animals is we only take animals off the street.

We do not take owner surrenders.

So if you're moving or you've had something changed in your life, and you want your kitty or your dog to go to a different owner, that's not our population.

Our population of animals are the animals that have absolutely no one in the world.

They're alone.

They're isolated.

They don't - they need help and they need somebody to give them a chance.

Very, very much like our kids that we hire with disabilities, they need someone to give them a chance.

They need a place to call their own.

Here on Oʻahu, we have a huge population of feral and community cats.

Because of our climate in Hawaiʻi, our kitties here can have up to three litters of kittens a year.

Within three years, that one cat will have produced almost 30,000 cats.

30,000 cats in three years.

If we can fix that one cat, we prevented 30,000 more cats from being born.

And the way we can do that humanely is by doing what's called trap neuter, return and manage.

What that means is that volunteer trappers will go out into the communities where there's large populations of feral kitties.

We trap them.

We take them to a clinic where we have them microchipped, spayed and neutered and vaccinated.

And then we're able to return those kitties to those populations where they live, but they're no longer going to reproduce.

The kiddies like this little one, you can see that this little guy has what's called an ear notch.

And this ear notch means that this cat has been spayed or neutered.

This is a boy.

And when they're small enough, and we believe that they have opportunity to be tamed, we'll pull this kitten.

This kitten will go out into our network of incredible volunteers.

And a volunteer will take this into their own home.

And they will socialize it and they will teach it that people are safe.

Once it is healthy, and has had all its vet care all of its shots and is social.

We then bring that kitty to Toe Beans and Dreams.

Those kitties are then available for adoption and we get them out into real homes forever.

Beth Doughty/KAT Charities Vice President Some of our employees when we first bring them in, we asked them, ‘Would you rather work with the animals or do you want to learn kitchen skills?’ Most of them want to be in the cat rooms, they want to be here.

They do do a lot of cleaning for us they they walk down and vacuum different things in the rooms and try to keep it tidy and then they, they do a lot of collar checks for us and they're like, ʻOh, I noticed Willow’s collar’s getting tight’.

And we'll go get Willow and fix her a new collar and so they love to be in the cat rooms.

And then we're like okay, now we need to wash hands and start in the kitchen and they're like, ‘Okay’.

But you can tell they want to be in here with the animals.

Karen Tyson / KAT Charities CEO Our goal here is to not have these kids work at Toe Beans forever.

This is a stepping stone, we want to get them in and have realistic expectations.

We're not making this job easy for them.

We're accommodating for them.

But our goal is to help spread their little wings, so they can actually go out and get a job in the mainstream job industry.

Beth Doughty/KAT Charities Vice President My hope for Toe Beans is that people understand when they come in that we are teaching and we are training.

And so they're patient with us first, but I just hope that it becomes very, very successful, that people want to be here.

People want to, people want jobs here.

That's not the problem.

We have lots of people that want jobs here, but I hope people will come in and want to support the people that work here.

Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here Thank you for joining us.

Head to PBS Hawaiʻi dot org for bonus features from this episode including an ikebana demonstration and a night time adventure to find some feral cats.

For Home is Here, I’m Kalaʻi Miller, a hui hou.

(Instrumental music) Lisa Maumalanga / Chinagu Eisa Hawaii For Chinagu Eisa I mean, we've some of us have known each other for 20 years, you know, and so it's just natural that they become your second family.

(Instrumental music) Joyce Kaneshiro/Ikebana International Hawaii “You can use all different types of material that, you know, that makes it fun.” (Instrumental music) Beth Doughty/KAT Charities “It's just teaching, just teaching.

It’s never too young to start teaching kindness.” (Instrumental music)