Kendama has always had a special relationship with Hawaii.
The islands have produced some of the most influential players in modern kendama, helped shape American kendama culture, and consistently provided an environment where the game can grow through community, creativity, and connection. But in 2026, something different is happening.
Kendama is reaching an entirely new level of visibility in Hawaii. Over the past several months, local meetups have grown dramatically, professional players have attracted hundreds of kendama kids and families, shopping centers have become kendama gathering places, and social media has helped connect thousands of people to the game. After spending time in Hawaii throughout September 2026, attending some of the largest gatherings we have ever witnessed and participating in several local jams, we believe Hawaii is experiencing its largest peak of kendama interest yet.
And more importantly, this isn't just about one big event. It is about a community that is beginning to build the infrastructure necessary to make that interest last.
On Sunday, September 13, Erratic Squirrel Kendama hosted an event at Ka Makana Ali'i on Oahu. The event had only been promoted for around three days, primarily through Instagram and TikTok. Despite the incredibly short promotional window, more than 3,000 local people showed up. From our perspective, it was the largest kendama gathering anywhere in the world so far in 2026. The scale was something we had never personally experienced before. There were kendama players everywhere, with huge numbers of children and families gathering around the stage. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in free giveaways, play 1-on-1 games of K with professional players, watch professional kendama performances, and learn about video contests they could participate in after the event.
The biggest draw was undoubtedly the Miguel De La Torre and Johnny Kress. Kids were eager to meet Miguel, get his autograph, take photos, and hopefully get an opportunity to play him in a game of K. The crowd became extremely packed around the stage, but that was a natural result of the amount of interest generated by a professional kendama player with such a large local following. Josh Grove helped MC the event, while members of the Hawaii Kendama Club volunteered their time to help with giveaways and safely move children on and off the stage.
One of the most important pieces of Hawaii's current kendama growth is the Hawaii Kendama Club. The club consists of a large group of active young adult players who are interested in facilitating meetups, events, gatherings, and creative projects that connect the local community. They also play an important role when professional kendama players travel to Hawaii.
Rather than simply having pros arrive, perform, and leave, the club helps create opportunities for those players to connect with local people. That distinction matters. A professional player can create excitement for a day, but a local community creates somewhere for that excitement to go afterward. The Hawaii Kendama Club, led by Ethan Santiago, Sean Abbott, Jeremiah Morrison, and others has demonstrated a willingness to volunteer, organize, teach, and facilitate events that bring people together.
Their work is helping create a more sustainable environment for kendama to continue growing in Hawaii.
Just six days after the 3,000+ person gathering at Ka Makana Ali'i, Sol Kendamas partnered with the Hawaii Kendama Club for another local meetup.
On Saturday, September 19, we hosted a Kendama Jam at Michael S. Nakamura Park in Mililani. The event was promoted only through the Sol Kendamas and Hawaii Kendama Club Instagram accounts a few days beforehand.
More than 100 people attended. The goal wasn't to create another massive spectacle. It was much simpler. Bring local players together. Create new friendships. Strengthen existing relationships. Give people an opportunity to play kendama together, and have fun. Those goals are at the center of both Sol Kendamas and the Hawaii Kendama Club. We organized a variety of mini-games where players could win free kendamas and kendama string packs, while everyone had plenty of time to simply hang out and play. What stood out most was the atmosphere. It was welcoming, friendly, and incredibly family-oriented. Experienced players were playing alongside beginners. Kids were meeting new people. Parents were watching and participating.
It felt less like a traditional competition and more like what I think kendama is ultimately supposed to be: a reason for people to get together.
If you want to understand why kendama has such a strong foundation in Hawaii, you also have to look at the weekly jams. The Southside Kendama Jam in Ewa Beach has become a staple of the local community. Every Monday, anywhere from approximately 100 to 300 kids can attend depending on the time of year, school schedules, and which special guests or professional players are in town.
The event has also attracted unique local guests, including the Sons of Yeshua, The Pork Hash Man, and Miss Cosmo Hawaiʻi 2026 Crysania Saballa. On Monday, September 14, the special guests were Miguel De La Torre, Jacob Watts, and Chad Covington.
Approximately 150 kids attended. Miguel held a giveaway for a free kendama for the first person to land a yank spike. Chad brought more than 1,000 kendama strings and approximately 150 Sol Kendamas cloth drawstring bags so that everyone attending could leave with something. But the giveaways aren't really what make Southside special. The atmosphere does. The jam is organized by Tasha Santana, whose goal is to spread aloha through kendama and give kids a fun, safe place to play together, learn tricks, and meet professional players when they visit Hawaii. It is a great example of how a local meetup can become much more than a place to practice tricks. It becomes part of a community's weekly routine.
One of the biggest differences between Hawaii's current kendama growth and previous periods of popularity is the role of social media. Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms have fundamentally changed how people discover kendama. Today, a kid can see a trick online, learn how they work, find other players nearby, discover an upcoming event, meet professional players, and share their own progression without ever needing to leave their phone.
There is an interesting contradiction here.
Social media is one of the primary reasons kendama has reached such a large audience. But many parents are also excited about kendama because their kids are spending less time on social media and video games and more time outside playing with other kids. In that sense, social media is helping introduce people to kendama, while kendama can give them a reason to put the phone down.
That is a powerful combination.
Kendama also provides something that social media itself cannot fully replicate: physical interaction. You can watch someone land a trick online, but eventually you have to pick up a kendama yourself. And once you do, the natural next step is often to find someone else to play with.
Hawaii's current growth isn't happening from scratch. The islands have been home to influential kendama players for years. Players such as Micah Segura, Jimmy Covington, Johnny Kress, Bryson Lee, and Zackie Fernando continue to play important roles in the local scene. These players aren't simply talented competitors. They are active participants in the community, helping inspire younger players, attending events, teaching tricks, competing, creating media, and creating opportunities for kendama to continue developing. The combination of experienced players, younger players, local organizers, and visiting professionals gives Hawaii a unique ecosystem.
Another interesting part of Hawaii's kendama growth is the role of shopping centers. Locations such as Town Center of Mililani, Pearlridge, and Ka Makana Ali'i have become important gathering points for the community. These aren't traditional kendama venues. They're shopping centers. But that's part of what makes the current growth so interesting. Kendama is increasingly appearing in places where large numbers of people already gather. A shopping center can provide space for demonstrations, competitions, performances, meetups, and family events while exposing kendama to people who may have never encountered it before. This creates an opportunity for kendama to move beyond the traditional skate shop, hobby store, or dedicated event environment.
The growth of kendama in Hawaii also creates opportunities for a much larger group of people. There are talented event organizers, MCs, performers, photographers, videographers, designers, filmmakers, social media creators, manufacturers, retailers, teachers, and community leaders throughout the global kendama scene. Bringing these people together with Hawaiian communities, schools, businesses, festivals, shopping centers, and other organizations creates an enormous number of possibilities.
A kendama event doesn't have to be just a competition. It can be a professional performance. A school workshop, corporate activity, festival attraction, community meetup, product collaboration, video project, social media campaign, or simply a place where people can meet each other. That flexibility is one of kendama's greatest strengths.
Sol Kendamas has been involved in event hosting for approximately 15 years and has more than 12 years of experience designing and producing kendamas. Our professional team includes players from the United States, Japan, and Poland, and we have been supporting the Hawaii Kendama Club since 2024. Our goal has always been bigger than simply selling kendamas. We want to promote fun through kendama, help people connect and grow together, and help create an environment where kendama can continue to thrive long term. That means supporting local communities, working with event organizers, creating opportunities for professional players, producing educational content, and helping introduce kendama to people who have never played before. Hawaii is an especially exciting place to do that because the local community is already doing much of the hard work.
The next few years could be extremely important. On October 17, Sol Kendamas will partner with Erratic Squirrel Kendama and the Hawaii Kendama Club for a new event at Town Center of Mililani. Professional players scheduled to attend include Nowa Yamada, Chad Covington, Miguel De La Torre, and Johnny Kress. But that is only one event. There are opportunities for more local jams, school programs, professional performances, competitions, creative projects, collaborations, and community events. There are also opportunities to create kendama products and designs specifically connected to Hawaii and its unique culture. The goal shouldn't simply be to make the biggest event possible. The goal should be to turn the excitement surrounding these huge events into something that continues after the stage comes down. That means supporting local organizers, giving kids somewhere to play every week, helping new players learn, creating opportunities for experienced players to get involved, bringing professional players into local communities, working with schools and local businesses, and giving people reasons to continue picking up a kendama.
The September events in Hawaii showed me something we haven't seen anywhere else at this scale. Thousands of people showed up to see professional kendama players Hundreds of kids are attending weekly community jams. Local players are volunteering their time to organize and support events. Parents are actively encouraging their children to participate. Shopping centers are embracing kendama as an activity, and social media is allowing the entire community to grow faster than ever before.
At the same time, Hawaii already has a deep history of producing influential players and contributing to kendama culture. That combination of history, community, professional talent, social media reach, and local enthusiasm makes this moment particularly significant. In our opinion, Hawaii is currently the kendama capital of the world. Whether that title ultimately belongs to Hawaii isn't really the important part. What's important is what the community does with this moment. Kendama has an opportunity to make a lasting impact in Hawaii, not just by creating more players, but by creating friendships, opportunities, creative projects, events, and communities that can continue long after the current wave of attention has passed. The biggest challenge for kendama has never been getting people to pick up the toy. It's giving them a reason to keep playing, and right now, Hawaii is showing the world what that can look like.
