Kāneikokala

Kāneikokala
Shark god
Other names
  • Kane-i-kokala
  • Kaneikokala
Venerated inHawaiian religion
SymbolKōkala (porcupinefish)
RegionKahikinui, Maui

Kāneikokala[1][a] (also Kane-i-kokala[3] and Kaneikokala[4][5]) is a Hawaiian shark god[4] who was worshipped as an ʻaumakua (transl. ancestral guardian) in the Kahikinui district of Maui.[3][4] According to Hawaiian mythology, he rescued people from canoe wrecks,[3][4] and the kōkala (porcupinefish)[6] was associated with him.[3][4]

Kāneikokala is considered one of the most important manō kumupaʻa (transl. ancestral sharks), alongside Kūhaimoana, Kānehunamoku, Kauhuhu, and Kāmohoaliʻi.[3][5]

A stone kiʻi ('religious image') of Kāneikokala stands in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.[1]

Beliefs and practices

According to a Maui tradition, Kāneikokala and his sister were originally humans and members of the priesthood. Kāneikokala was "a confessor, a kahuna who forgives transgressions".[7] After they died, they became protective shark ʻaumakua who help people resist evil.[7]

Historian Samuel Kamakau wrote that when a canoe broke up at sea, a descendant of the ancestors who worshiped Kāneikokala could summon him for help. Kāneikokala would appear and return the survivors to their respective home island.[4]

The kōkala was sacred to Kāneikokala. People of Kahikinui whose ancestors had worshiped him did not eat it and avoided it when it was being cooked.[3][4]

Bishop Museum stone

Pohaku Kāneikokala
MaterialVesicular basalt[8]
Height58 in (150 cm)
Discoveredc. 1885
Kawaihae, Hawaiʻi
Present locationBishop Museum, Honolulu
CultureNative Hawaiian

A 58-inch (150 cm) stone image of Kāneikokala stands in Hawaiian Hall of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.[1][8][9] The figure has "a slightly kapa-kahi (transl. crooked) face".[9]

For much of the 19th century, the stone lay buried at Kawaihae, on the island of Hawaiʻi, where it had been hidden to protect Kāneikokala at a time when images of Hawaiian gods were endangered.[10] Around 1885, an old man named Wahinenui had dreams about Kāneikokala, who said he was cold and asked to be dug up. Wahinenui dug up the stone, and correctly predicted that he would die within three days.[9][10] The stone came to the Bishop Museum in 1906 and was installed in the floor of Hawaiian Hall.[8][10]

During the 2006–2009 restoration of Hawaiian Hall,[11] museum staff tried to relocate the stone out of the hall but he "refused to be moved".[1][8][12] Workers dug at the stone and brought in a jackhammer without reaching the base, until elders pointed out that no one had consulted Kāneikokala about the move. Ultimately, Kāneikokala remained in the hall.[10]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The name translates to "Kāne in the kōkala fish".[2]

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Saranillio, Dean Itsuji (2018). Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawaiʻi Statehood. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 239. doi:10.2307/j.ctv11smkg0. ISBN 978-1-4780-0062-4. JSTOR j.ctv11smkg0.
  2. ↑ Kamakau 1964, p. 57.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Beckwith, Martha Warren (1940). Hawaiian Mythology. Yale University Press. p. 129.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kamakau 1964, p. 87.
  5. 1 2 Thrum, Thomas G., ed. (1923). "Shark Beliefs". More Hawaiian Folk Tales: A Collection of Native Legends and Traditions. Chicago: A. C. McClurg. p. 288. These supreme sharks were credited with coming from abroad, and were held to be the origin of their species (mano kumupaa). Prominent among these were: Kamohoalii, Kuhaimoana, Kauhuhu, Kaneikokala, Kanakaokai and others.
  6. ↑ Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert, Samuel H. (1971). Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-87022-662-5.
  7. 1 2 Ashdown, Inez MacPhee (1971). Ke Alaloa o Maui: The Broad Highway of Maui. Wailuku, Hawaiʻi: Ace Print. p. 64. OCLC 146140.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Kāneikokala (Museum label). Honolulu: Bishop Museum. n.d. – via Flickr.
  9. 1 2 3 Gutmanis, June (1986). Pohaku, Hawaiian Stones. Laie, Hawaiʻi: Brigham Young University–Hawaii Campus. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-939154-44-9.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Nathaniel, Naka (November 1, 2023). "It's All About The Story". Honolulu Civil Beat. Retrieved June 14, 2026.
  11. ↑ "The Newly Restored Hawaiian Hall". Bishop Museum. Archived from the original on May 15, 2011. Retrieved June 15, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Kāneikokala". Mobile Tours (in Japanese). Bishop Museum. Archived from the original on January 15, 2025. Retrieved June 15, 2026. [During the restoration of Hawaiian Hall, an attempt was made to move Kāneikokala, but he could not be moved, and the work proceeded with him left in place.]

Works cited

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