By: Sherry Heiser
When Akima Kai opened her Waimea Blue gallery next to Coffee Gallery in the North Shore Marketplace, she considered it the culmination of her life’s work. It was March 2019, twenty years to the month since she left Japan on a journey that brought her to 30 countries and throughout the South Pacific.
Born and raised in Tokyo, she had attended college to become a personal trainer and ended up following her teacher who was also a diving instructor. Barely beyond her teens, she decided that becoming a diving instructor was her calling. However, it didn’t take long to discover that wasn’t going to work out. She regularly got very seasick.
“It wasn’t fun,” she said.
Then a spark was rekindled. Now in Australia, she met an underwater photographer. Seeing his undersea images, she was captivated by how she felt looking at the natural beauty and wild sea life.
“How I felt right then, that is how I wanted people to feel,” said Akima. “That’s how I got into underwater photography.”
She worked two, often three jobs to support herself and her new pursuit. There were days she didn’t eat. Diving and photographic equipment did not come cheap. All the while she continued to train and hone her skill. As she got older, she became more determined than ever to become a professional underwater photographer and totally devote her time to her artwork.
“To be a professional,” she said, “I need to make money from what I do.”
After landing in Hawaii in 2010, she operated a tour company for a while and sold her photography on consignment. Nine years later, she finally was able to open the Waimea Blue gallery in Haleiwa to showcase her underwater photography as well as creations from other local artists. Now in her midforties, she decided it was time to take the plunge. If things didn’t work out, she said, then she’d quit and move on to something else, plain and simple.
That first year her gallery struggled. Then the pandemic hit. Nevertheless, thanks to her courage and grit, the devotion of two gallery staff whom she considers family, the support of her landlord Howard Green, and business from local residents, the gallery hung on. By November 2020, Waimea Blue began to show a small profit.
Akima credits at least part of that to another endeavor she began last year – creating wood-resin art from salvaged and reclaimed wood. Using only Hawaii grown wood, she likes to think that she is “breathing a second life into the tree.” For her it’s just another exciting path to explore.
www.WaimeaBlue.com