Artist: Santiago Otani
Lovers of Hawaiian history will want to check out Santiago Otani’s “Scrapbook” mural located along the mauka outer wall of the SALT at Our Kaka‘ako parking garage. In the narrow breezeway, also known as Harry’s Alley, Otani strung together a series of sketches depicting some of the people and places that played key roles in shaping Kaka‘ako into the urban island community it is today.
Images of Kaka‘ako’s industrial roots and immigrant neighborhoods of the 1800s and wholesale and retail businesses and warehouses of the mid-1900s line the walkway. Among the folks depicted in the mural are renowned Hawaiian musician Gabby “Pops” Pahinui, mobile vegetable peddler Ralph Kimura, TV journalist Emme Tomimbang, and the artist’s own grandfather, Kazuo Otani, a lifelong Kaka‘ako resident, boat builder, and one-time amateur boxer.
“My grandfather was just one of the many thousands of people from this area who were ordinary people that did ordinary things,” Otani said. “Most of the people who lived here were poor in material wealth but rich in culture and self-identity.”