Post #566736 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Sat, Nov 27, 2010 8:10 PM

A few more images of Kamuualii, the Shark God:

This first photo is undated but very early :down:

And just like this previous photo from the 40s...

... You can see the same roofed structure to the left of the tiki. On the back of the first photo is written, "A statue beside the Moana Hotel".

In this second image from the 60s, you can see that there is no longer a roof to the tiki's left.

Either that building was torn down, or the first photo was truly by the Moana Hotel, and the statue was moved.

Even more fascinating is the discovery of another cement tiki in Honolulu from the 1940s:

This may be another tiki by Homer Merrill. The tiki is clearly made of concrete like the Shark God, and has similar feet and cement base:

However this one is much more authentic looking and appears to be patterned after an example in the Bishop Museum.

The brochure has a rubber-stamped date of Oct 21, 1948 on the back but the images inside look to be from the earlier 1940s.

Can't find much info on this hotel. It was located at 1030 King Street and it looks like the property was subdivided in 1951. So the original structure and tiki were probably destroyed at that time.

Another really early example of a Poly-pop tiki, (post-1800s) in Hawaii, pre-dating the Fernwood tikis and the ones carved by Ed Brownlee in the 50s.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2010-11-27 20:43 ]