The 30-year-old voyaging canoe Hokule'a this January will escort Hawai'i's youngest voyaging canoe, Maisu, on a historic voyage of kinship and gratitude to Micronesia — a part of the ocean Hokule'a has never visited.

Then it would sail to another new destination, Japan.

The heart of the mission is the island of Satawal, home of the man who taught modern Hawaiians the ancient Polynesian art of non-instrument navigation. The Hawaiian voyaging community, under the direction of Na Kalai Wa'a Moku O Hawai'i, built Maisu as a gift to navigator Mau Piailug, and the canoe will be delivered to him on his home island.

Details of the voyage, with visits to numerous islands in Micronesia, will be discussed Monday in a news conference.

The Micronesia trip's name, given by Big Island Hawaiian cultural leader Pua Kanaka'ole, is "Ku Holo Mau: Sail on, Sail Always, Sail Forever."

"This voyage honors our traditional ties to Micronesia and Japan and thanks each for their contributions to Hawai'i," says the Polynesian Voyaging Society's Web page on the trip. The Web site says the canoe Makali'i, operated by Na Kalai Wa'a Moku O Hawai'i, may also participate in the sail.

Sailors from voyaging groups around the state will serve as crew on the canoes, to create a unified Hawai'i mission to Piailug's island. Sailors from Piailug's island are also expected to participate.

When the founders of the modern Hawaiian voyaging effort during the 1970s searched Polynesia for a teacher of traditional navigation — long lost in Hawai'i — they could find none. Ultimately Piailug agreed to come and teach, and his instruction led to the revival of traditional voyaging in the Islands, where there are now at least eight deep-sea voyaging canoes built or under constructions.

Piailug is from an island in the same ocean, but Micronesia is culturally distinct from Polynesia. Still, while their backgrounds are diverse, what Polynesians and Micronesians had in common was the ocean, and a tradition of sailing long distances in small canoes, using clues from their environment to find their ways from island to island. Winds, clouds, waves, colors in the water, fish and birds — all these and many other things gave the wayfinders information that provided accurate landfalls.

Piailug's first student, Polynesian Voyaging Society President Nainoa Thompson, has since taught numerous other Hawai'i residents, as well as sailors from South Pacific Polynesian islands, to sail canoes from point to point without modern instruments.

The canoe Maisu is to remain in Micronesia after a voyage to last from January to early March, but Hokule'a is scheduled to sail on to Japan, with as many as eight stops there from April to May. This portion of the voyage celebrates the 125 years of history between Hawai'i and Japan, dating back to King Kalakaua's visit in 1881 to Emperor Meiji.

University of Hawai'i professor Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa has named this portion of the trip "Ku Holo La Komohana: Sail On to the Western Sun."

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.