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Upcoming events

    • 20 Nov 2024
    • 8:00 AM
    • 21 Nov 2024
    • 11:45 PM
    • Online

    Nominations are currently ongoing for leadership for the next two years for JCSM.

    The Japanese Cultural Society of Maui is an all-volunteer, working board that has existed since 1969 to preserve and perpetuate Japanese culture on Maui. The work can sometimes be thankless, but is a fulfilling role of a lifetime. Having the opportunity to shape this dynamic organization's future and create lasting impact with the community is amazing opportunity for personal growth.

    Thank you for submitting a nomination for the 2025-2026 Board. We look forward to your leadership!

    Learn more and submit your candidates:

    https://forms.gle/LMeFG2c5NEDyZ9AN7

    • 1 Dec 2024
    • 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    • Kahului Jodo Mission, 325 Laau St, Kahului, HI 96732
    • 9
    Register


    Sunday, December 1, 10 a.m. session

    JCSM invites you to join us for a Japanese Calligraphy Workshop to create a beautiful wall hanging featuring next year’s zodiac animal, the Snake, or your own zodiac kanji character! Learn basic calligraphy techniques and make a unique piece on a traditional washi board.

    This workshop is open to all skill levels and materials will be provided. Come celebrate creativity and culture with us!


    Monk Sen - Kodai Haga, Instructor

    Monk Sen is a Japanese Buddhist minister at the Rinzai Zen Mission in Paia, Maui, representing the Rinzai Zen school of Zen Buddhism. As a minister, he is leader of the community conducting prayer services, delivering Dharma talks, and teaching Zazen meditation. Monk Sen also teaches Japanese calligraphy four times a month. He actively shares Buddhist wisdom online and in-person from his Paia location as well as through his travels between islands.


    There are two sessions for this workshop:

    Venue: Kahului Jodo Mission, 325 Laau St, Kahului, HI 96732


    Rates:

    • $30 - JCSM members, Kahului Jodo members
    • $35 - Non-Members

    Not a member yet? Membership is only $10 or $20. Sign up here.

    Become a member for exciting workshops and events like this throughout the year!

    Questions? Email jcsmhawaii@gmail.com

    • 1 Dec 2024
    • 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
    • Kahului Jodo Mission, 325 Laau St, Kahului, HI 96732
    • 9
    Register


    Sunday, December 1, 1 p.m. session

    JCSM invites you to join us for a Japanese Calligraphy Workshop to create a beautiful wall hanging featuring next year’s zodiac animal, the Snake, or your own zodiac kanji character! Learn basic calligraphy techniques and make a unique piece on a traditional washi board.

    This workshop is open to all skill levels and materials will be provided. Come celebrate creativity and culture with us!


    Monk Sen - Kodai Haga, Instructor

    Monk Sen is a Japanese Buddhist minister at the Rinzai Zen Mission in Paia, Maui, representing the Rinzai Zen school of Zen Buddhism. As a minister, he is leader of the community conducting prayer services, delivering Dharma talks, and teaching Zazen meditation. Monk Sen also teaches Japanese calligraphy four times a month. He actively shares Buddhist wisdom online and in-person from his Paia location as well as through his travels between islands.


    There are two sessions for this workshop:

    • 10am - 12pm
    • 1pm - 3 pm

    Kahului Jodo Mission, 325 Laau St, Kahului, HI 96732


    Rates:

    • $30 - JCSM members, Kahului Jodo members
    • $35 - Non-Members

    Not a member yet? Membership is only $10 or $20. Sign up here.

    Become a member for exciting workshops and events like this throughout the year!

    Questions? Email jcsmhawaii@gmail.com

    • 28 Dec 2024
    • 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM
    • Wailuku Hongwanji Mission, Wailuku
    • 46
    Register


    Oshougatsu Mochi Pounding

    Saturday, December 28, 2024

    4 p.m. - 8 p.m.

    Wailuku, Hongwanji Mission 1828 E Vineyard St, Wailuku, HI 96793


    Limited spots available. Open to the public! Bring your keiki and the whole family - experience pounding mochi, then eating them afterwards! We'll have games, and traditional New Year's ozoni.

    JCSM members can secure tickets now. Non-member tickets will begin on Dec. 1. 

    Sign-up to be JCSM members - it's only $10-20.

    • 11 Jan 2025
    • 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
    • Kahului Jodo Mission
    • 18
    Register


    Join us for an amazing Zen Dinner experience with Naoko Moller.

    Learn about preparation, presentation and the philosophy of eating with a vegetarian course to nurture the heart, mind, body and spirit. This class was so in-demand the last time with raving reviews from attendees! 

    A Zen dinner can refer to a meal prepared in the style of shojin ryori, a cuisine based on Zen monastery cooking, or to the practice of eating in a Zen-like way. It is a strictly vegetarian cuisine that aims to purify the body and mind. Common dishes include vegetable tempura, miso soup, sesame tofu, pickled vegetables, and eggplant with a caramelized miso topping. Zen monks learn to eat in a frugal style called oryoki, which involves eating just enough food to survive.

    The practice involves slowing down, paying attention to the food, and savoring it. This can include being grateful for where the food came from, noticing emotions while eating, and learning to enjoy healthy foods.

    Very limited seats available.


    Cost:

    • $35 JCSM members and Kahului Jodo Mission members
    • $50 Non-members (Tickets available Dec. 1 for nonmembers)


    Guest Speaker Naoko Moller

    Naoko is a Japanese cooking connoisseur and an ESL Educator.

    Born in a Zen Buddhist temple in Niigata, Japan, raised in Hawaii and in Japan at Zen Buddhist temples. She learned to cook by assisting her mother from an early age and as a minister's wife by cooking for large groups at Zen Buddhist temples.

    Conducts Zen Buddhist vegetarian cooking workshops and educational workshops for parents and teachers in England, America, and in Japan.

    Operated an English School in Japan for over 20 years and worked also as a teacher-trainer while managing the temple.

    Moved to Hawaii and taught Japanese language and Japanese culture at Honolulu Waldorf School.

    Conducting Zen Buddhist vegetarian cooking workshops, cultural and educational workshops for parents and teachers both in America and in Japan.

    Currently enjoying off-the-grid life in Northern California with her husband.


    • 11 Jan 2025
    • 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    • Kahului Jodo Mission
    • 14
    Register


    Join us for an amazing Zen Dinner experience with Naoko Moller.

    Learn about preparation, presentation and the philosophy of eating with a vegetarian course to nurture the heart, mind, body and spirit. This class was so in-demand the last time with raving reviews from attendees! 

    A Zen dinner can refer to a meal prepared in the style of shojin ryori, a cuisine based on Zen monastery cooking, or to the practice of eating in a Zen-like way. It is a strictly vegetarian cuisine that aims to purify the body and mind. Common dishes include vegetable tempura, miso soup, sesame tofu, pickled vegetables, and eggplant with a caramelized miso topping. Zen monks learn to eat in a frugal style called oryoki, which involves eating just enough food to survive.

    The practice involves slowing down, paying attention to the food, and savoring it. This can include being grateful for where the food came from, noticing emotions while eating, and learning to enjoy healthy foods.

    Very limited seats available.


    Cost:

    • $35 JCSM members and Kahului Jodo Mission members
    • $50 Non-members (Tickets will be available beginning Dec. 1)


    Guest Speaker Naoko Moller

    Naoko is a Japanese cooking connoisseur and an ESL Educator.

    Born in a Zen Buddhist temple in Niigata, Japan, raised in Hawaii and in Japan at Zen Buddhist temples. She learned to cook by assisting her mother from an early age and as a minister's wife by cooking for large groups at Zen Buddhist temples.

    Conducts Zen Buddhist vegetarian cooking workshops and educational workshops for parents and teachers in England, America, and in Japan.

    Operated an English School in Japan for over 20 years and worked also as a teacher-trainer while managing the temple.

    Moved to Hawaii and taught Japanese language and Japanese culture at Honolulu Waldorf School.

    Conducting Zen Buddhist vegetarian cooking workshops, cultural and educational workshops for parents and teachers both in America and in Japan.

    Currently enjoying off-the-grid life in Northern California with her husband.


    • 25 Jan 2025
    • 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM
    • Maui Beach Hotel
    • 198
    Register

    Nominations for Nihon Bunka Awards are now open. Click here to nominate someone.


    Packages:

    • General Admission – $75

      Includes dinner from Maui Beach Hotel

    • Shinnen Enkai Sponsor – $1,000 (Best value, worth $1200)

      Includes Table of 10, prime seating at the event and recognition for your company in the promotion and 10 JCSM memberships. 

    • Table of 10 – $750

      If you are buying for your table, make sure to add all the names after your guests.


JCSM Signature Events

Oshougatsu

The annual Oshougatsu Mochi Pounding doubles as the organization's General Membership meeting. Pre-COVID, we get together and experience mochi pounding together, build our own mochi with sweet and savory toppings, enjoy ozoni and play some games.


Shinnen Enkai

The annual Shinnen Enkai is typically on the last Saturday of January, to welcome the new year. Attendees wear their best kimono for this evening formal banquet. Each year, JCSM honors Nihon Bunka awardees - outstanding individuals who have perpetuated (life-long) the Japanese culture. There's welcome sake, entertainment, and fukubiki - a fun evening for everyone.



Maui Matsuri

This Japanese Festival began in 1999. With a grant from the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the County of Maui, this annual celebration has contests, performances, art displays, food vendors, and much more. Learn more about it here.



2021 Virtual Shinnen Enkai and Resilience Awards

Watch the entire virtual program here:

Gannenmono Celebration (2018)

2018 marked the 150th year since the first Japanese immigrants - our ancestors who have sacrificed to find a better life in 1868, settled in Hawai’i to work for the sugar plantation. This is a big and momentous milestone for the Japanese community of Hawai’i. The first immigrants, about 150 of them, are known as the “Gannenmono.”

A series of commemorative events were planned throughout the State of Hawai’i by various organizations, which included JCS Maui. The Honolulu Consulate General of Japan has made it possible for the state to welcome 140 Japanese crew members of the distinguished Kaiwo Maru training ship, which docked at the Kahului Harbor in May.


The purpose of the Kaiwo Maru’s visit is to celebrate the Gannenmono with our community. JCSM received grant monies from the County of Maui to help celebrate the events!

  • Official Harbor Welcome, Dinner for the Kaiwo Maru
  • Maui Day Tour

With partnership with JTB bus tours, the Kaiwo Maru crew enjoyed what Maui has to offer. Student and Senior tours were also conducted aboard the ship.

  • Visit at the County Building, Maui Matsuri Kick-Off

To honor international relations protocol, the Kaiwo Maru crew visited to the county building’s Mayor’s Office and Council Chamber. In the evening, the crew joined the celebrations for the Maui Matsuri Kick-Off, with program and entertainment, including obon dancing.

  • Aloha Kaiwo Maru, ship departure




50th Anniversary Celebration (2019)

For the last 50 years, the Japanese Cultural Society of Maui upheld its mission to perpetuate the Japanese culture to help preserve traditions and values for our kodomo. As we reach this 50th golden milestone, we hope you can join us to honor those who have paved the way for our future.


The JCSM 50th Anniversary Gala was held on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019 at the King Kamehameha Golf Club Waikapu Ballroom. The fundraising evening featured a buffet dinner, entertainment, silent auction and a program that honors Maui’s Japanese community.

The Gala honored Yukie Ueoka, the last living founding board member, who helped establish JCSM in 1969. We raised funds for the restoration of the iconic tea house in the Japanese Garden at the Kepaniwai Park in Iao Valley.

It is our goal to hold a traditional tea ceremony in the tea house to commemorate the Gannenmono, the 150th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. With your support, we can turn this ambitious plan into reality.

PHOTOS! Click here are some wonderful photos from the event.

Here's a video of past president Brian Sato in Sept. 2019 giving a tour of the renovations needed for the tea house project: VIDEO

Here's an introduction video of Yukie Ueoka, our honored guest:

Other Past Events




Japanese Cultural Society of Maui, Inc.   Est. 1969

P.O. Box 5090, Kahului, Hawaii 96732     jcsmhawaii@gmail.com

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