Kabuki Symposium Remarks by CG Kamo

November 13, 2010　

Good Morning!

おはようございます。       

Aloha!

Thank you for having me this morning and gave me a chance to speak to you.

My humble presence this morning has two intentions. Obviously I am not a Kabuki expert. So I will not speak on the subject. Instead I would like to give scholars from Japan and the mainland a small lecture on Hawaiian Sociology, so to say. There are two important words that will make your Hawaiian stay a lot easier. They are, of course, Aloha and Mahalo. 

Aloha is a greeting word to show welcome and friendship to others. It is a very useful word and can be used in any situation. There is a local rule that when you are offered aloha, you are supposed to respond to it by reciprocating the same word in return. Mahalo is a word to be used when you show your thankfulness to others. It is common to any language that there exists such a word of appreciation: Thank you, Domo Arigato Gozaimasu, and the like.

My second intention is of course to put them into practice. First I would like to offer a big, big aloha to the visiting scholars from Japan and the mainland to Hawaii. You are participating in a very unique cultural events happening in UH at Manoa; this symposium on Kabuki that will be followed by a workshop tomorrow morning. Your presence here today is crucial to the success of the symposium. And I hope you will get a lot out of the symposium professionally and personally.

I would also like to convey my big Mahalo to the Center for Japanese Studies, Department of the Pacific and Asia, and for that matter, University of Hawaii at Manoa. We at the Japanese Consulate have been most fortunate and privileged to have a very cordial and productive relationship with these fine institutions over the years to promote Japanese Culture and interchanges between scholars, students, peoples of Japan and Hawaii. They are so instrumental in giving numerous opportunities of international exposure to Japanese scholars.

This year has been particularly eventful. I recall that Mr. Owada, President of the International Court of Justice visited UHM early this year upon the invitation the Legal Department of UHM. About a month ago, Princess Akiko came to Hawaii and she made presentation at exactly the same venue, namely here, for an art history symposium.

I wish you a successful conference today and I congratulate you on your decision to come to Hawaii. You will be rewarded with a relaxing garden party at my place this evening.

Thank you and Mahalo!

(c) Consulate General of Japan in Honolulu
1742 Nuuanu Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96817 USA
Tel: 808-543-3111