Kinohaku

Kinohaku was a Māori woman of the Ngāti Maniapoto tribe in New Zealand's Waikato region. She lived in the seventeenth century and is the eponymous ancestor of the Ngāti Kinohaku sub-tribe (hapū) of Ngāti Maniapoto.

Life Kinohaku was a daughter of Rereahu, through whom she was a direct male-line descendant of Hoturoa, the captain of the Tainui canoe, and his second wife Hine-au-pounamu, also a descendant of Hoturoa. She had one older half-brother, Te Ihinga-a-rangi, five full brothers, Maniapoto, Matakore, Tū-whakahekeao, Tūrongo-tapu-ārau, Te Io-wānanga / Te Āio-wānanga. Two full sister Kahuariari and Te Rongorito.

Kinohaku and her full siblings were raised in region around Kāwhia. Subsequently, they settled along the Waipā River and the Manga-o-kewa Stream, with a central hub at Te Kūiti.

Marriage to Tū-irirangi

Kinohaku married Tū-irirangi, who was her cousin on both sides, since his father, Huiao son of Whāita, was a great-grandson of Rereahu's brother Kurawari, while his mother Māpau-inuhia was the sister of Hine-au-Pounamu's father Tū-a-tangiroa. The amount of food gathered by Tū-irirangi and his tribe for the wedding feast was enormous and remains a source of mana for the descendants of the marriage, Ngāti Kinohaku. In response to this, some Tainui people joked that Kinohaku had been “bought with pipi.”

After the marriage Tū-irirangi and Kinohaku settled at Ngaku-raho, a rocky pinnacle near Hangatiki and very near the final base of Kinohaku's brother Maniapoto at Te Ana-a-Maniapoto / Te Ana-a-uriuri. They had three sons and one daughter together. Whakapau-tangaroa Kāhui-tangaroa Tangaroa-kino Rangipare, who was meant to marry Wairangi, but eloped with her cousin Tū-taka-moana, son of Maniapoto, with whom she had one son, Rangatahi, an ancestor of the Ngāti Urunumia hapu of Ngāti Maniapoto.

After many years, Hinerangi visited Ngaku-raho, while she was fleeing the murder of her father, Mania-takamaiwaho. Tū-irirangi developed a desire to marry her, but she refused. However, Kinohaku was furious that her husband had planned to marry another woman, so she had an affair with Tū-irirangi's half-brother Pai-ariki. When Tū-irirangi found out, he went to Pai-ariki's village, Te Rua-o-te-manu near Te Kūiti, intending to murder him, but was unable to do the deed. Afterwards, he went away to Kāwhia, where he remarried and had another son.