Long ago on the Big Island of Hawaii, there lived a beautiful young woman named Kalei. Each night Kalei would bathe in the sea. One night, Kamohoalii, the king of all sharks was swimming just below the surface of the waters where Kalei bathed.
Kamohoalii saw Kalei and was entranced by her beauty. He swore he would take on human shape and search the land for the beautiful woman. For the next few days he walked the land as a chief and ate and communed with the people of Waipio Valley in search of Kalei. In time, he found her. They fell in love and married.
Soon Kalei became pregnant with Kamohoalii’s child. But before the child was born he had to return to the sea. He told Kalei to give birth alone and never allow the baby to eat the flesh of any animal.
On a dark night, Kalei gave birth to the shark king’s son. She was afraid when she saw that the baby was born with a large fish mouth on the back. She wrapped the baby in a thin blanket of tapa cloth to hide the deformity from others. That night she cried as she rocked her newborn son, Nanaue.
As the child grew older, she kept him away from meat, but she could not protect him forever. One day his grandfather took him to eat with the men. He was fed meat for the first time and developed an insatiable appetite. The gaping mouth on his back grew rows of sharp teeth.
After that, when Kalei took her son to bathe in the stream she watched in horror as he took the form of a young shark. He would swim and play in the water in shark form, chasing and eating the smaller creatures in the stream.
Once he became an adult, people would go missing when he went swimming. A great shark would come out of the water and tear swimmers apart.
The people of Waipio Valley became suspicious – why was Nanaue never harmed in the ocean?
Soon they discovered the great mouth on his back. The villagers realized he was the one who had been eating people. Nanaue changed into shark form and escaped into the sea.
Nanaue swam to the Hana side of the island of Maui and started a new life. He married a chiefess and tried to hold back his desire for human flesh. One night his hunger took hold and he kidnapped a young girl, ran to the ocean, shape-shifted and devoured her in front of everyone. The people of Maui tried to spear Nanaue from canoes, but he swam quickly toward Molokai.
On Molokai, Nanaue tried to keep his true nature a secret, but as he grew older his hunger grew stronger. By this time, tales of a dangerous shark man were circulating through the islands. Some people saw Nanaue shape-shifting in the sea when he thought that no one was watching. They snared him while in shark form and beat him with clubs until the ocean was red with his blood.
His shark body was drug to shore where he was chopped to pieces and incinerated in a large oven. Thus died Nanaue, son of Kamohoalii – King of Sharks.
But had he left behind children of his own?
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This is an encaustic piece on wood.
Much longer version of tale here
For this design I went for catching him starting transformation from shark back to man, rising up towards surface with the tentacles around him expelling him. He is welcome nowhere.
I went for thresher as shark type as they are known for striking with their tail as a club, using it to stun prey. Since he was clubbed to death, this seemed like a logical connection as often monster are vulnerable to their own weapons.