Bronze urn stolen from shrine in widow's home

Eighty-eight-year-old Yukiko Watanabe had hoped to be buried next to her husband in a Nuuanu plot when she died.

Her husband, Koichi Watanabe, died on March 1, 2009.

His ashes were kept in a bronze urn in the family's "butsudan" (small Japanese Buddhist wooden shrine) in the living room of her three-bedroom home at Date and Mahiai streets near 'Iolani School.

However thieves broke into the home over the weekend and stole Koichi Watanabe's ashes along with a large combination safe, cash, Yukiko Watanabe's husband's suits, her Japanese kimonos, tea sets, vases and jewelry.

Left behind was a 35-inch cathode ray tube television.

"But they went through every room," said June Niizuma, one of the Watanabes' five daughters.

"They opened all the drawers in every bedroom."

Niizuma said the only thing her family wants to recover is her father's ashes.

"We just want them back."

Niizuma said thieves must have staked out the house and realized that her mother was away the entire weekend. Watanabe's yardman noticed on Monday afternoon that screens and glass jalousies had been removed from windows in back of the house and called her sister, May Takamatsu, who alerted police.

Niizuma said police told her the burglary may have been committed by drug addicts who live in the area.

The burglars also left behind in Watanabe's garage a box of photographs, a tool box, a hand truck, jumper cables and other personal items taken from other homes.

"It looks like they had to make room in their truck for the safe," Niizuma said.

Niizuma said her father, Koichi, was a well-known "yasai-san," or vegetable peddler, who sold local vegetables from a truck and whose route covered Manoa, Ewa Beach and Waipahu until he retired in 1969 because of a medical condition. The Watanabes have lived in the Date Street house for nearly 50 years.

She also has called local metal recyclers, telling them to be on the lookout for the bronze urn.

Niizuma said anyone with information should call the police, her brother-in-law Rodney Takamatsu or her sister, May, at Rod's Auto Service at 593-9725.