OLOWALU - With Christmas drawing near, Matsue Fujii, 97, has abandoned her morning yardwork in favor of wrapping presents. She stands at the kitchen table, working her way down a handwritten gift list, as she wraps handmade crocheted doilies and boxes of chocolates for each of the family's tenants.
She's a Buddhist and until recently, the treasurer of the Lahaina Jodo Mission, but Christmas is coming. There is work to be done.
Drawing on many years of practice and a lifelong penchant for frugality, she carefully eyes the paper before cutting a perfect size rectangle. Steady hands, fingers bent with age, fold the paper in neat lines. It is a minor struggle to rip the tape into pieces. The dispenser has a cardboard backing that is in her way. Once she rips that away, it's clear sailing. She finishes another gift to join the line of other neatly wrapped parcels on the living room sofa.
"It starts in about November," said her son Donald Fujii, 71. "Of course, she does her crochet work all year long. She gives presents to all of our tenants. She's been doing it since day one for the first rental we had. It keeps her busy."
Keeping busy has never been a problem for Matsue Fujii. She has been on the go for most of a century. Old-time Maui residents may remember her as the longtime proprietor of Olowalu General Store, a place where she might have sold them a hot dog and six-pack of beer, or a pair of work pants. A few may even recall rushing into the store on Christmas Day to have her wrap a last-minute gift on the spot.
"We were open a half a day, at least, because you always get late shoppers," Donald Fujii said. "We ran right through most of Christmas Day. That's why she is a great wrapper. Back then, they had families in the camps of Olowalu. Above and below, there were houses. People would stop by on the way to visit their friends and family. She was the only one who would wrap. Even to this day, she doesn't waste any scraps. She knows just how to fit it in."
Matsue Fujii was born in Honokowai on Oct. 5, 1912, the sixth of nine Ichiki children. Her parents were Japanese contract laborers who left two babies in Japan when they moved to Maui for what they thought would be temporary work on the plantation. The Ichikis, however, found Honokowai a pleasant place to live. They ended up putting down roots and having seven more children.
Life changed abruptly for Matsue Fujii when her older brother Masaji Ichiki arrived from Japan to assume his rights as the eldest son.
"Nobody knew him, but he was the boss," Donald Fujii says. "He was the number one."
Masaji Ichiki brought with him a keen business sense and penchant for trade. He worked at the plantation's company store for a stint and put in some time at a mercantile in Honolulu, before returning to Maui to found a small merchandising empire.
Starting with a store in Honokowai, he quickly expanded to own Ichiki stores in Lahaina, Olowalu, Wailuku, Makawao and several more in Honolulu. His business plan called for family members to run the stores. When Matsue Fujii finished the 8th grade, she was pulled from school to work at the Lahaina store.
"After one year, her brother decided she was ready to run her own store," her son said. "So he acquired the Olowalu Store."
She arrived at Olowalu as store manager at a time of transition. A year earlier, Olowalu Sugar Co. had been absorbed by Pioneer Mill Co. With sugar processing moved to Lahaina, Olowalu Mill stood silent, almost directly across the street from the store.
Amid the challenges of building a business as the town's population slowly drifted away, Matsue Fujii settled in to compete with the company store.
For the next 42 years, she kept the place open 364.5 days a year, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m..
There were boom years, like when Kaanapali and Kapalua were being developed, and nearly every truck stopped in the morning for breakfast and beer and pupu in the afternoon.
And there were lean times, such as sugar strikes when she had to extend credit to customers in need.
"One strike was, like, four or five months," Donald Fujii said. "But they were honest people. We trusted everybody; and eventually they all paid their bills."
In those early days, the store was not the pit stop along Honoapiilani Highway that it is today. It carried goods ranging from clothing, to bags of rice and canned food. Masaji Ichiki imported in bulk and distributed shipments throughout his chain of family stores.
In 1935, Matsue Ishiki married Pioneer Mill worker Hisao Fujii. Although he joined her in the store when he wasn't working or fishing, his heart wasn't in it.
"My dad was an outdoor person," Donald Fujii said. "He was the weakest link, if you want to say, for the store. He would rather be outside. He did throw net and fish, to dry fish to sell."
Donald Fujii is lucky just to be here. After a long, difficult delivery of her first son, Wallace, in 1935, Matsue Fujii was warned by her doctor that she should never attempt to have another child.
"I told him I would have one more," she said with an impish smile. "A friend for my baby boy."
Donald was born in 1938. The two boys were raised around the store and were accustomed to sitting down for dinner after 8 each night. They eventually went off to college on the Mainland and returned with teaching degrees. Wallace Fujii continued in education, retiring as principal of Baldwin High School, while Donald Fujii was coaxed back to work at the store. He worked alongside his mom until the family gave up day-to-day operations in 1974.
"My mom is the hardest-working person I have ever experienced in my life," said Wallace Fujii. "She would never take off, never close the store, except for half a day on New Year's Day.
"She also had a good business sense. She held her own in that respect. My dad worked at Pioneer Mill, on the plantation. She would get up at 5:30 a.m. to make his lunch, then go to the store, where she worked until 8 at night. She was really into it, and trying to do well for her family."
One fateful day, the family had a revelation that helped establish its signature hot dog dish.
"We heard Maalaea Store was doing good with hot dogs, so we thought we would give it a try," Donald Fujii said. "We used to sell about 400 hot dogs on a Sunday. Of course, we prepared sushi, boiled peanuts, dried fish, beer. In those days, people would drink in their vehicles."
In 1974, a Mainland customer who had spent many vacation mornings sipping coffee in front of the store observing its steady flow of business, made a bid to lease the property from the Fujii family. The couple were nearing retirement age, so they accepted the offer. The husband bought a fishing boat and embraced his passion for the outdoors. And she began her career of keeping busy.
After 35 years, she still maintains a busy schedule, working in the garden in the morning, tending the family books around noon and crocheting in the afternoon. Hisao Fujii died in 1997.
The weight of 97 years has bent her frame so that she walks with her head angled forward, her chin nearly resting against her chest. She is several bags of rice shy of 80 pounds and appears to carry not one ounce of fat on her body. When she raises her face, visitors are treated to a smile that lights up a room. Her eyes miss little.
When asked his mom's secret to such a long and healthy life, Donald Fujii says she never smoked or drank, or indulged in any excess. Unless you count work.
"She never takes a nap," he says. "She is always active. She has a routine."
Even with her hearing aid cranked up, she has a hard time making conversation. Even so, while she was being photographed for this story, she extended an invitation for another visit.
"You come back and take my picture in three years," Matsue Fujii said with a confident smile. "In two years and nine months, come back when I turn 100."
The Fujii boys plan to take their mom to dinner tonight in Maalaea. If anyone is at Buzz's Wharf restaurant and needs a last-minute Christmas gift wrapped, they might try stopping by her table. It wouldn't be the first time she has saved a procrastinator's holiday.
* Matthew Thayer can be reached at matthayer@mauinews.com.
