Afun-filled event with food, drinks, live entertainment by Senjukai Hawaii members, and our popular silent auction

Cultural Fusion is Senjukai Hawaii’s annual fundraising event to help us in our mission to perpetuate Okinawan dance and culture.

Proceeds from Cultural Fusion help us to purchase supplies, perform community service, hold recitals, and provide scholarships to students to further their training in Okinawa.

Join Hamakua Heritage Center and Hamakua Jodo Mission for Japanese Cultural Heritage Day on Sunday, November 1st, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Enjoy workshops, historic tours, presentations, performances, a mini bon dance, and more! This free event is open to the public.

In his essay, “Imaginary Homelands,” Salman Rushdie describes our remembrances of homelands as like a broken mirror, with some of its fragments lost forever. Revisiting the cultural past, he writes, is more about memory and forgetting than recreating precisely what once was. Visited by ancestors from their Asian heritage and guided by traditions from distant, imagined, but vivid and personally inspiring pasts, these artists live and work in the multicultural environment of Hawai‘i, sharing a common vision of how art can respond to the challenges and possibilities posed by our urgent need for a more inclusive and interdependent world.

In 2019, Yukie Shiroma invited Kenny Endo and Norman Kaneshiro on a journey to explore the intersections of Japanese taiko, Okinawan sanshin, Okinawan and modern dance to create new music and choreography to tell contemporary stories. Musicians Derek Fujio, Brandon Ing and Jesse Shiroma soon joined the ensemble, and the Imaginary Homelands Band was formed. Collaborating with Shiroma and eight dancers, their collaborations were presented at Palikū Theatre on February 2022, Leeward Theatre in April 2024, and UH Hilo Performing Arts Center in October 2024. Without the dancers this time, the musicians return to the stage to present selections from recent shows and some new solos.

Imaginary Homelands: The Concert is presented by the University of Hawai‘i Outreach College, Monkey Waterfall, and private donors. Additional supporters include the University of Hawai‘i’s Department of Music.

The Artists:
Kenny Endo was the first non-Japanese national to be honored with a natori, a
professional stage name, in the field of Japanese classical drumming. Born in Los Angeles, he received his BA at UCLA and MA at UH Mānoa. He is currently Artistic Director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific and tours extensively, presenting his innovative cross-cultural musical collaborations throughout the U.S. and internationally. In 2022, he was recognized as a Living Treasure of Hawai‘i and a United States Artist Fellow.

Norman Kaneshiro, co-founder and musical director of Ukwanshin Kabudan, an Okinawan performing arts organization, is a grand master of Okinawan music, Nomura-Ryu Ongaku Kyō Kai. He has a BA in Ethnic Studies and is now working on an MA in Applied Cultural Anthropology at UHM. Since 2002 he has been an instructor of Okinawan music in the UHM Department of Music. In 2009 Kaneshiro was designated as a cultural preservationist of Okinawan classical music by the Okinawan Prefecture Government.

Derek Fujio is the Music Department Chair and Orchestra teacher at Kaimuki Middle School. He joined the faculty in 2008 after graduating with a BA degree in Music from Yale University. In 2018 he received a MA in Music Education from UHM. A lifelong student of sanshin under Norman Kaneshiro and koto under Jane Kaneshiro, he is currently the senior master instructor and president of the Okinawan koto organization, Ryukyu Sokyoku Koyokai Hawaii.

Brandon Ufugusuku Ing is a fourth-generation Okinawan born and raised in Kāneʻohe. He has spent many years practicing both guitar and sanshin in a wide range of musical styles, including traditional Okinawan music. He devotes much of his time and energy contributing to the revitalization of Uchināguchi, the indigenous language of Okinawa as well as composing songs in the language. Currently an elementary school teacher on O’ahu, Brandon is enrolled in the Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization doctoral program at Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani at the University of Hawai’i Hilo.

Raised in Hilo, Hawai’i; Jesse Shiroma views music as a meeting ground between the ancestral past and present. His work with the accordion has been recognized through two Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards and an Emmy nomination for the docu-series “Will Play For Food”. As a biracial descendant of diaspora, he has spent the last 15 years in dialogue with his central European heritage and now brings that experience into his Ryukyuan sphere through study on the sanshin and teeku.

Format: Leadership Storytelling and Japanese American History in Hawai’i at JCCH Gallery (including allowing participants to walk through the gallery)

Program Description: A storytelling-focused discussion on leadership and Japanese American history in Hawai‘i, including an opportunity for participants to walk through and experience the gallery.  This event will explore how personal identity, cultural background, and lived experiences shape leadership styles in Hawai‘i. Through a partnership with the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, the program will highlight the value of authentic leadership in a diverse, community-centered environment.  The session will feature a storytelling-driven conversation led by JCCH President & Executive Director Nate Gyotoku, blending insights from the Japanese American experience in Hawai‘i with reflections from his own leadership journey. Through both historical and personal perspectives, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how culture, community, and lived experiences influence leadership development and career paths. 

Enjoy a shamisen and minyo recital featuring Madoka no Kai performers from Hawaii, the US mainland, and Japan to commemorate the 5th Anniversary of Madoka no Kai’s Hawaii Chapter, led by Sensei Anju Madoka.

Event Details:
Sunday, November 15, 2026 • 1 PM – 3:30 PM
Tickets are $15.68/each
All ages welcome!

Minyō is a traditional style of Japanese folk music that developed from the everyday lives, work, and celebrations of local people. Lyrics are often stories of each prefecture’s famous products, scenery, love stories, work, etc. The shamisen is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument. Musicians pluck or strike the strings using a large plectrum called a bachi, creating a unique percussive quality.