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Maui the Demigod
KAJIYAMA, Kats, author and illustrator. Maui and His Magical Deeds. Honolulu, Hawaii: Barnaby Books, Inc. (3290 Pacific Heights Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813) 1997. 36 p., ISBN 0-940350-27-0 (hc). $19.95. Illus.
Maui and His Magical Deeds is a retelling of popular children’s folktales set in Hawaii. The book presents three stories of Maui, the Hawaiian demigod. The first tells the reader about how a mischievous young boy named Maui was floating peacefully along the ocean and was swallowed without warning by a large wave. He was saved by the gods, who give him great wisdom and useful skills. Maui later yearns to return to earth and does so after telling the gods of his wish.
Upon his return to earth, Maui, the demigod, performs great feats which segue into the next two folktales. Maui was not content with the small island he and the other villagers lived on and wanted to enlarge the land, thus he threw his fishhook that he fashioned as far as could to pull up the other Hawaiian islands. The last legend told was about Maui taming the sun to move slowly across the sky to travel the earth in twenty-four hours.
Author and illustrator Kats Kajiyama was born and raised in Hiroshima, Japan. He arrived in Laie, Hawaii in 1962 and attended Church College in Hawaii. Kajiyama has made Hawaii his home and now teaches Japanese at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.
Kajiyama, intrigued by the legends of Maui, began utilizing the demigod as a subject for his paper artwork, kirie or paper cutting. After completing his exquisite paper cutouts and matching them to the stories of Maui, a book was born in 1997. This book, Kajiyama’s first and only, won two Ka Palapala Po’okela awards for excellence in children’s literature and illustration from the Hawaii Book Publishers Association in the fall of 1998.
Maui and His Magical Deeds carries forth stories handed down by generations of adults in Hawaii. These stories were untold or different from the legends of Maui told by Charlotte Hapai (Hilo Legends, The Petroglyph Press, 1966) and Dietrich Varez (Maui, the Mischief Maker, Bishop Museum Press, 1991). Hapai presents Maui as the son of goddess Hina, who lives behind Rainbow Falls in Wailuku. Maui is his mother’s son and has siblings in Hilo Legends and performs great feats. Varez tells an incredible story of Maui’s birth, similar great deeds told by the other two authors, and “death.” Kajiyama tells the reader of a Maui who grew up with gods and returned to earth to live by himself.
Kajiyama delivers respectable stories regardless of the differences between Hapai and Varez’s legends. The colorful illustrations throughout the book were beautifully done and fittingly presented. Hawaiian translation of the story was provided on the same page by ‘Ahahui ‘Olelo Hawaii for the stories in the book. Some shortcomings of the book include that it is not divided into short stories, but is told as one long legend which may lend authenticity. But the absence of a separation between the stories makes it harder for young readers. Another loss is an absence of a glossary for the non-English words exclusive of the Hawaiian translation.
Overall, the book will delight all ages with the three stories of the popular demigod. The publisher of the book, Barnaby Books, Inc., has done nice work with this inexpensive glossy page book. The binding of the book is equally commendable.
Maui and His Magical Deeds is a retelling of popular children’s folktales set in Hawaii. The book presents three stories of Maui, the Hawaiian demigod. The first tells the reader about how a mischievous young boy named Maui was floating peacefully along the ocean and was swallowed without warning by a large wave. He was saved by the gods, who give him great wisdom and useful skills. Maui later yearns to return to earth and does so after telling the gods of his wish.
Upon his return to earth, Maui, the demigod, performs great feats which segue into the next two folktales. Maui was not content with the small island he and the other villagers lived on and wanted to enlarge the land, thus he threw his fishhook that he fashioned as far as could to pull up the other Hawaiian islands. The last legend told was about Maui taming the sun to move slowly across the sky to travel the earth in twenty-four hours.
Author and illustrator Kats Kajiyama was born and raised in Hiroshima, Japan. He arrived in Laie, Hawaii in 1962 and attended Church College in Hawaii. Kajiyama has made Hawaii his home and now teaches Japanese at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.
Kajiyama, intrigued by the legends of Maui, began utilizing the demigod as a subject for his paper artwork, kirie or paper cutting. After completing his exquisite paper cutouts and matching them to the stories of Maui, a book was born in 1997. This book, Kajiyama’s first and only, won two Ka Palapala Po’okela awards for excellence in children’s literature and illustration from the Hawaii Book Publishers Association in the fall of 1998.
Maui and His Magical Deeds carries forth stories handed down by generations of adults in Hawaii. These stories were untold or different from the legends of Maui told by Charlotte Hapai (Hilo Legends, The Petroglyph Press, 1966) and Dietrich Varez (Maui, the Mischief Maker, Bishop Museum Press, 1991). Hapai presents Maui as the son of goddess Hina, who lives behind Rainbow Falls in Wailuku. Maui is his mother’s son and has siblings in Hilo Legends and performs great feats. Varez tells an incredible story of Maui’s birth, similar great deeds told by the other two authors, and “death.” Kajiyama tells the reader of a Maui who grew up with gods and returned to earth to live by himself.
Kajiyama delivers respectable stories regardless of the differences between Hapai and Varez’s legends. The colorful illustrations throughout the book were beautifully done and fittingly presented. Hawaiian translation of the story was provided on the same page by ‘Ahahui ‘Olelo Hawaii for the stories in the book. Some shortcomings of the book include that it is not divided into short stories, but is told as one long legend which may lend authenticity. But the absence of a separation between the stories makes it harder for young readers. Another loss is an absence of a glossary for the non-English words exclusive of the Hawaiian translation.
Overall, the book will delight all ages with the three stories of the popular demigod. The publisher of the book, Barnaby Books, Inc., has done nice work with this inexpensive glossy page book. The binding of the book is equally commendable.
Submitted in May 2008 by Annette Yoshida, LIS Student, University of Hawaii at Manoa
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0-940350-27-0
Barnaby Books
Demigod
Kajiyama
Kats
Kats Kaijiyama
Maui
Maui and His Magical Deeds
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