Docomomo Hawaii finds new home for Kapahulu mural

For nearly 60 years it hung on display in Bank of Hawaii’s Kapahulu branch, drawing admiring glances from customers waiting in line.

Made up of five panels, the untitled ceramic mural by late master craftsman Isami Enomoto was commissioned for the bank after it opened in 1961. More than 20 tiles were used on each panel to pay tribute to the neighborhood’s working-class residents as Hawaii transitioned to statehood.

Mounted on wood backing, the panels vary in size, with the largest weighing about 650 pounds and measuring roughly 11-by-6 feet. A Honolulu Advertiser article at the time called it “the largest ceramic tile mural ever produced in the islands.”

When Bank of Hawaii decided in 2015 to vacate the stand-alone building for an in-store branch at the Safeway in the Kapahulu Shopping Center, there was no room for the artwork, which appeared destined for obscurity — or worse.

Then Docomomo Hawaii came to the rescue. As the local chapter of a national organization that advocates for the documentation and preservation of mid-century modern designs, members were keenly aware of the importance of Enomoto’s work, done in the Works Progress Administration style. The WPA was the largest of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs that kept people employed during the Great Depression.

“When we were first offered the murals, it was just an unbelievable task,” said John Williams, a retired architect and Docomomo Hawaii treasurer. “How would we store them? And when we figured that out, which was almost an immediate problem, then we had to go through and try to find out where they would go.”

As time was running out, Bank of Hawaii, which had appraised the artwork at $50,000, agreed to donate it to the group. With no plan in place for a future location, Docomomo enlisted the help of Keola Rapozo, owner of clothing brand Fitted Hawaii, to provide warehouse space in Kakaako in the interim.

Rapozo and a second benefactor, who did not want to be identified, stored the mural for free, and the bank covered the cost of removing the panels and transporting them for storage.

After consulting with the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the University of Hawaii-West Oahu was designated its new home. Docomomo still had to raise the money to pay for transporting and installing the mural at the Kapolei campus.

Williams said 38 donors, including some of the state’s largest labor unions, answered the group’s call for help and came through with more than $48,000 — just enough to cover expenses.

“In just the last two weeks, more checks have been written and there’s between about $4,000 and $5,000 left,” he said. “I’m as astonished as anyone how clean this process has been.”

FOR Enomoto’s family, saving the mural for the community was more important than furthering the artist’s legacy and that of the now-closed family business, Ceramics Hawaii.

Enomoto, who died in 2016, is also known for works at the Honolulu airport in partnership with famed architect Vladimir Ossipoff and at the United Public Workers Union building in Kalihi completed in collaboration with artist Jean Charlot.

“Dad’s last wishes for the mural were that it be seen by the public and not sequestered in someone’s private collection or used as decoration,” said his son, Mark Enomoto. “I’m really happy that the mural got saved.”

He said it broke his father’s heart to see ceramic murals at other sites destroyed during renovations.

“I know of other pieces that got destroyed,” Mark Enomoto said. “There was one in the Gold Bond building (with) all hand-built ceramics, and someone came in and jackhammered the whole thing. So that broke his heart.

“Dad loved the WPA style of art done during the Depression, and in that spirit, he did these murals to reflect the working people of Kapahulu.”

Each panel depicts workers in various sectors of the local economy: small business, agriculture, construction, commerce, transportation and shipping.

The mural was installed at UH-West Oahu’s Center for Labor Education and Research labor history archive at the campus library during a break in classes last month. A dedication ceremony is planned for 1 p.m. Feb. 7.

Visit hawaii.edu/uhwo/clear/home for more information.