Hawai‘i’s First Public Kyudojo Is Slated for Kaimukī

Rendering: Courtesy of Hawai‘i Kyudo Foundation

Prior to World War II, at least a dozen groups on O‘ahu were dedicated to kyudo, the traditional Japanese martial art that develops the spirit and mind through archery. In fact, the Meiji period art form’s presence in Hawai‘i dates to 1900. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, however, the kyudo community fractured, with teachers and members sent to internment camps and kyudo equipment confiscated under martial law.

Now, the local nonprofit Hawai‘i Kyudo Foundation aims to revive the practice in the Islands by teaming up with the City and County of Honolulu to build the state’s first public, regulation-sized kyudojo. HKF will raise funds for and construct the $850,000 recreation and education facility, which it will donate to the city.

Set for completion in summer 2026, the campus will occupy a little more than half an acre of undeveloped land in the mauka section of Mau‘umae Nature Park in Kaimukī. The grounds will include a 3,200-square-foot open-air shajo (shooting gallery), a grassy 28-meter yamichi (arrow path) with an adjacent spectator area and a matoba (target bank). It will also feature a Japanese garden and a classroom big enough for 40 people; the room will be designed as a flexible multipurpose space for community meetings, events and other movement-based practices.

hawaiikyudofoundation.org, @hawaiikyudofoundation

Brie Thalmann is the home and style editor of HONOLULU Magazine.