You may have wondered who the two men standing on either side of the seal, sealed in the Hawai'i Coat of Arms, and let us tell you, there is a very interesting story regarding these two mysterious individuals. The two men, whom are actually brothers, were the sworn-to-secrecy guardians, or kahu tasked with covertly burying the iwi or bones of Kamehameha The Great. The brothers' names were Hoapili (which means "attached to the bosom," one of Kamehameha's closest companions) and Ho'olulu.
The story of the burial of Kamehameha's iwi starts on a pitch-black night, Ho'olulu surreptitiously extracted and removed Kamehameha's casket from atop the Ahu'ena heiau, made the trek down to an undisclosed beach where he met Hoapili in a canoe. The two of them, chaperoned by Keopuolani who was known to be Kamehameha's favorite wife, rowed their canoe to an undersea cave, which until this day, has never been discovered. Exactly the way our King wanted it. William John Kaihe'ekai Mai'oho, better known as Uncle Bill, is the direct descendant / lineage of the Kaihe'ekai name; the fourth generation of caretakers / kahu. For many years, the location of these bones remained a mystery, and in a sense, it still is. However the kaona or hidden message of the possibility of discovering the location is actually hidden in the name Kaihe'ekai, which translated straightforward, means ocean, octopus, ocean, but if you decipher the hidden meaning, it translates to "the receding tide," ie. how an octopus recedes into the puka and hides. Theoretically, this means the iwi of Kamehameha was buried in a cave that can only be accessed during low tide, through an underwater cave.
This new, customized Kamehameha features dark green wool on all 6 panels with metal eyelets and a brown suede bill. Wrapping along the inside is an orange headband with a satin lining of the Hawai'i Coat of Arms, prominently featuring the brothers. The shirt is a white pocket tee, featuring a Kamehameha logo on the pocket. The backside also features the Hawai'i Coat of Arms with the twin brothers Hoapili and Ho'olulu.