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Author: Aya Shirayama
This section introduces how Okinawan immigrants in Hawaii make their dishes and share their recipes with the Okinawan community. This section introduces three cookbooks published in 1975, 2000, and 2008 by the Hawai‘i Okinawan Women Organization, “Hui O Laulima,” and shows the historical changes in Okinawan recipes. Hui O Laulima was established in 1968 as a branch of the United Okinawan Association (UOA), which was established in 1951 and was the first one to unite various fifty locality clubs of Okinawans in Hawai‘i. Hui O Laulima was an organization that was formed only by Okinawan women interested in Okinawan culture. Mr. Tommy S. Toma, who was the president of the UOA from 1968-1969, called for a need for a women’s organization that could take care of visiting officials from Okinawa, and his wife assisted in forming the organization. Hui O Laulima means “to give a helping hand (Hui O Laulima and Fujii 1975, 2).” Thus, Hui O Laulima was established in 1968 as a branch of the UOA, and only Okinawan and Uchinanchu-at-heart women were members of the club (Hui O Laulima and Fujii 1975).
Okinawan Cookery and Culture (1975)
The 1975 volume was published in conjunction with the seventy-fifth anniversary of Okinawans’ first arrival in Hawai‘i. This edition is printed exclusively in black and white, contrasting to the subsequent two cookbooks. There are no pictures in the recipes; only the food drawings are in the recipes, so it looks amateurish. This cookbook introduces the home recipes of Okinawan women in Hawai’i, so each recipe has the authors' names. A notable feature of this edition is the inclusion of an "Okinawan Menu from a Restaurant in Naha, Okinawa," suggesting an emphasis on connections to their ancestral homeland.
Okinawan Mixed Plate: Generous Servings of Culture, Customs, and Cuisine (2000)
The 2000 volume was released to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first immigration to Hawai‘i by Okinawans. This version was published in color, and there are small pictures in the sections that explain the Okinawan culture, such as sanshin, bingata,and hanagasa. The 2000 version devotes more pages to Okinawan culture than the 1975 version, and 20 percent of the cookbook pages explain Okinawan history and culture (Sato 2008). Moreover, “Genealogy: In Seach of Self (Hui O Laulima 2000, 17),” a section that guides tips for genealogical research, first appeared in the 2000 version, and it has the pages of a pedigree chart (family tree) and a family group. Furthermore, the 2008 version had a section introducing Uchinaaguchi at the bottom of the recipes. The 2008 version keeps this section, which shows how Okinawans in Hawai‘i place importance on thinking about their lineage.
The 2000 and 2008 versions started to emphasize the local and Hawaiian flavors in their recipes. For instance, the 2000 edition incorporated recipes for Rafute III: Easy Hawaiian Style Okinawan Pork, Oxtail soup, and Tumai Kuru Haupia Pie, which were absent from the 1975 edition. These local and Hawaiian-style recipes were passed on to the 2008 version.
Chimugukuru: The Soul, the Spirit, the Heart (2008)
The 2008 volume was published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Hui O Laulima; consequently, the content remains largely unchanged, and the introduction page is identical to that of the 2000 edition. However, the 2008 edition introduced a new section titled "Celebrity Chefs & Restaurants," which elucidates more localized recipes utilizing Okinawan ingredients. The 2008 edition is printed in color and larger compared to the previous versions, featuring numerous large images in each section. A distinctive characteristic of this edition is its dedication of entire pages to food images, enabling readers to visualize Okinawan cuisine more effectively.
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