By Katherine Ozawa
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The start of the new year is celebrated in different ways all around the world, and Hawaii is no exception. In the annual Nengajoo contest held in December, MHS Japanese language students Junior Kyle Matsuoka and Senior Adriene Unpingco placed first and third in the high school division in Hawaii.
“Nengajoo are basically New Year’s cards. In Japan, people send Nengajoo to family and friends. It’s kind of a new year’s greeting,” said Japanese Language teacher Corey Zukeran, “It’s kind of a way of saying ‘Thank you for what you’ve done for me in the past year and I’m looking forward to this coming year.’”
Each year, the contest features the Chinese Zodiac of the year. This year, approximately 500 students submitted a Nengajoo featuring this year’s zodiac: the horse. “There (were) different themes to the Nengajoo. It was Originality, Creativeness and Hawaiian,” said Matsuoka, “So, (it was) just based off what we did on New Year’s in Hawaii. Like popping fireworks and the stereotypical figures in Hawaii. Like the sunset, palm trees and coconuts.”
The contest judges gave the students guidelines that they needed to follow. “They’re required to, for example, write the kanji character for the zodiac animal for that particular year,” said Zukeran, “This year is the year of the horse, so they have to write the kanji or Chinese character for that. They also specify that you need to write the year and the date in Japanese numerals. They also ask that you write your name vertically along the left side.”
New Year’s in Hawaii is a unique time of year, and the entries using the Hawaiian theme reflected that. “I thought that it’d be easy because I’ve lived here (in Hawaii) for most of my life and I know the traditions,” said Unpingco, “So, I just thought of all the New Year’s traditions in Hawaii and I decided to draw those.”
Participating in the Nengajoo contest was enjoyable for all who were involved. “It was fun. It was like a break from my other work that I don’t really like to do,” said Unpingco. Matsuoka added, “We get to express our own feelings and our creativity.”
The winners of the Nengajoo contest had their entries featured in The Hawaii Herald’s New Year’s edition.
