Kame Ikemura, a retired baker and the inventor of Liliha Bakery’s top-selling coco puff, died Dec. 28 of colon cancer at Kuakini Medical Center. He was 80.
Ikemura worked at Liliha for 26 years before retiring in 1994 and is remembered as a thoughtful, generous person who valued life and enjoyed what he did.
"Even though he had cancer, his attitude was very positive," said Marsha Kaitoku, Ikemura’s niece. "I remember him saying that he has no regrets and he lived a long and happy life. He felt sorry for the younger ones diagnosed with cancer. He never once asked, ‘Why me?’ He was always so selfless."
Kaizo Furuya, who worked with Ikemura at Liliha for more than 20 years and continues to work at the bakery part time, added, "He was a very sociable person, always talking to everybody. And he would talk and keep moving his hands at the same time, always working. I don’t think many do that nowadays."
Born in Lahaina in 1932, Ikemura and his family came to Honolulu in his father’s sampan boat when he was young. After his mother died of stomach cancer at 42, he and his siblings lived with the family of his oldest sister, Doris Mayehara, while his father worked as a fisherman.
Ikemura’s interest in baking started early. When he was 14, his brother-in-law, Douglas Mayehara, who was a baker at Pawaa Bakery on King Street, got him a job there as a dishwasher. About a year later he started learning the basics of baking and eventually became a baker at the shop.
"He always liked to invent new things," said Dennis Mayehara, Ikemura’s nephew. "In fact, he and my uncle Tsuru would make different recipes, then compare notes and find out which was better."
In 1968 while still working at Pawaa, Ikemura got a job as a part-time baker at Liliha Bakery after his twin brother, Tsuru, who was also a baker, told him about the opening.
Ikemura worked at Pawaa Bakery for five more years until it closed in 1973. He then became a full-time baker at Liliha.
"He was a very hard worker, always thinking about the bakery," Furuya said. "He goes home just for sleep."
Around 1987, Ikemura became chief baker at Liliha and was soon assigned with making a tasty cream puff for the bakery. Little did he know his chocolate cream-filled puff with a dollop of rich chantilly frosting on top would become the bakery’s most popular pastry.
"When I first started here (at Liliha), they had the coco puff but only sold one or two dozen a day," Furuya said. "But he (Ikemura) changed the formula and now it’s a big seller. It went from a couple of dozen a day to hundreds and thousands. The formula is very good. He was always trying to think of different things."
Kaitoku said she never heard her uncle talk about creating the popular coco puff, but instead learned he had from news stories about it.
"That’s the kind of person he was," he said. "Humble. Sometimes he might talk about it (the coco puff), but he didn’t say he was the one who made it.
"We’re so proud of him. Now whenever we eat his coco puff, we’ll think of him."
Ikemura is survived by brother Tsuru; nephews Raymond, Ronald and Dennis Mayehara; nieces Deanna Tenma, Donna Mayehara, Marsha Kaitoku, Sharleen Hiraoka and Carole Kuwazaki; five grandnieces; two grandnephews; three great-grandnieces; and five great-grandnephews.
A private service was held Jan. 14.
