EVE BURNS*
Ama Town, Japan – Separated by nearly 2,400 miles, a Marshall Islands program and an American in Japan are working to rebuild and maintain a thousand-year old boat building tradition.
Howard Rice is a renowned boat builder and maritime enthusiast known for his dedication to preserving traditional boat-building techniques while embracing innovative designs. With a background steeped in craftsmanship, he has spent decades honing his skills in various coastal communities, particularly in Japan’s Ama Town.
His passion extends beyond mere construction. He uses the boats to promote cultural exchanges and education, sharing his knowledge of boat building with aspiring craftsmen and enthusiasts alike. Through his work, Rice embodies the spirit of adventure and connection to the sea, bridging cultures and histories through the art of boat building.
In much the same way, a Marshall Islands outrigger canoe program teaches youth the art of building traditional Marshallese canoes, teaching them the culture that underpins the rich history of canoe sailing in the Marshall Islands.
The Waan Aelon in Majel (Canoes of the Marshall Islands) program involves young people in a six-month life and vocational skills training program that links traditional canoe building with modern math and vocational skills. The canoe program helps aimless youth who dropped out of school to develop self-esteem, cultural, life and vocational skills.
Elementary, middle and high school students regularly tour the canoe building program to learn about canoes and to experience sailing on outriggers as their ancestors have done for generations.
Rice, meanwhile, is teaching elementary age children in Ama town how to build and sail boats.
He told a group of visiting Pacific and Caribbean journalists that the traditional Kanko boat is a small Japanese boat that has been handed down in Oki since ancient times, and is operated by oars and paddles. It does not have sails.
Rice explained that the boat building has positively impacted the Ama Town community in the sense that it has motivated older folks to help share the stories of the Kanko and teach the younger generation how to sail it.
“When you have the artifact, the actual historical artifact kids can touch, they can use it, they can understand the context of what it means, you can tell them about the history of the older men here who sometimes went almost to Korea in these things with a single oar, no engine,” said Rice.
And in Majuro, the latest finished WAM catamaran, “WAM Cat,” was launched earlier this week at the Waan Aelon in Majel boat building center in Delap.
The new WAM Cat was supported by the National Energy Office as part of WAM’s Sustainable Sea Transport program, which was initiated with the support of the German government through its GIZ development aid program a few years ago.
The new WAM Cat was built for the Wotje Atoll Local Government and the people of Wotje. It was built as part of a program of involving boat builders from different outer islands with the WAM team in Majuro to build various transport vessels designed for specific needs of these remote outer islands.
“Our effort to keep fossil fuel under ground!” said the WAM program in a social media post about the new boat.
- Journal reporter Eve Burns was in Japan in early October for a media program sponsored by the Association for Promotion of International Cooperation.