New Costa Mesa Car Dealership Gets Hawaiian Purification Rite

The growth of Orange County’s international business community not only expands trade, it also exposes executives and workers to new and different ways of doing things.

Employees of South Coast Acura in Costa Mesa received a lesson in cultural diversity Tuesday as they watched a traditional Hawaiian purification and blessing ceremony held to help ease the dealership’s move into its new facility.

South Coast, formerly situated in Huntington Beach, is owned by Tony Management Group, a Honolulu-based company that has one other California dealership and four auto dealerships, a camper shell factory and an auto paint and body shop in Hawaii.

Tony Masamitsu, company owner, said the ceremony is part of the Hawaiian culture and often is conducted in the islands in concert with religious blessing ceremonies at the opening of businesses owned by Japanese, Chinese or Korean investors. Masamitsu, accompanied by his wife, daughter and several associates, flew in from Honolulu for the brief ceremony.

Masamitsu asked David Nuuhiwa of Anaheim, an elder in the Mormon church and a native Hawaiian, to perform the purification rite at the Costa Mesa dealership, formerly the location of Norm Reeves Acura.

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Nuuhiwa--pronounced New-ew-HEE-vah-- began the ceremony with a prayer, in Hawaiian, asking that the business and all those working there be blessed with good things.

Wearing a white suit, symbol of purity, and a flowing lei of Mallee leaves from Hawaii, Nuuhiwa then slowly walked through the dealership’s showroom, offices, service area and back lot, sprinkling salty water from the tips of a whisk made of Ti leaves. The bitter-tasting salt water, made from Hawaiian rock salt, is used to drive away evil and open the building to goodness, he said.

“It was interesting,” said Mark Striggles, general sales manager for the dealership. “I’ve never seen this before, so I learned something.”