The Polynesian voyaging canoes Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia will make their way to Japan next year for the first time in 20 years, according to an announcement this week from the nonprofit Polynesian Voyaging Society.
This is part of the canoes’ Moananuiākea voyage, a three-year journey across the Pacific to connect with the ancestral roots of wayfinding and other Pacific Islanders who share cultural ties.
Kanako Uchino Dumaran is a crew member and was part of Hōkūleʻa's first voyage to Japan in 2007. She hopes this trip will resonate with Japanʻs communities.
“It’s really inspiring to know that we can learn so much from nature,” she said.
Ancient Polynesians are not known for sailing to Japan, but King David Kalākaua was the first foreign monarch to sail to the island country in 1881. Kalākaua traveled from Hawai‘i to Japan to meet Emperor Meiji to build a global and cultural relationship, which included signing an agreement in 1885 to allow the immigration of Japanese workers to Hawai‘i.
Japan has more than 10,000 islands and has its own cultural connection to the ocean. Although it doesn’t have a double-hulled canoe, smaller sailing canoes called sabani have become popular in Okinawa, according to Dumaran.
Dumaran, who is from Japan, said she knew about Hōkūleʻa when she was in her 20s. She moved to Hawai‘i in 2000 then joined the Polynesian Voyaging Society. She said the canoe has taught her about life and caring for the environment surrounding her.
“It’s a way of life, and the way of life that I want to live,” she said.
Dumaran still remembers when she sailed to Japan on Hōkūleʻa. Crew members in 2007 sailed to Japan from Micronesia. She recalled what she was feeling at the time when she first saw the horizon of Okinawa.
“It just felt like a miracle,” she said. “It really changed my perspective on life itself.”
Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia are still docked in New Zealand, where the crew has been training and working on the canoes since last fall. The representatives from Japan and the Polynesian Voyaging Society are working on a sail plan for the canoes to land. Possible ports would include Okinawa, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Ehime, Yokohama, Hokkaidō, and others.
The tentative dates for the visits will be from April to September 2027.
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