Maui | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 9, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Baldwin House Settlement

In 1901, with the consent of the HP Baldwin heirs, who own the property, it was decided to use the old Baldwin homestead for the settlement work.

Mrs. Henry Perrine Baldwin and others helped newly arrived plantation workers from Japan, the Philippines and China adjust to living on Maui. Along with other members of the Baldwin family, she continued to support the kindergarten and settlement work.

“We have classes started in sewing, basket-weaving, and physical culture. In a short time lacemaking is to be taken up and also a class in music is to be opened, as many have signified their desire to learn to read music by note.”

“The reading-room on the second floor is now open twice a week, on Monday and Thursday evenings, where papers, magazines and books may be found, while games and music may be enjoyed on the first floor.”

“There is much interest shown, and we hope to accomplish much during the ensuing year in all branches of the work, and to put in new departments as the need arises.” (The Friend, December 1909)

Staffed by members of the middle class, the Hawaiian settlement house movement sought to help immigrant families adapt to the language and customs of their new country.

Behind the settlement house effort was the progressive belief in the importance of social cohesion, the belief that individuals are not autonomous but part of a web of social relationships and that welfare of any single person is dependent on the welfare of society as a whole. (Castle)

The old Baldwin homestead of coral rock and plaster was occupied by Dr DD Baldwin and family during his thirty-four years of missionary labors in Lahaina. In 1868 Dr. Baldwin was transferred to Honolulu and for some years the old home was deserted, or occupied for short periods only.

This second period of service at the old homestead began in 1900, when Miss Nancy Malone decided that Lahaina needed a kindergarten. She appealed to HP Baldwin; he approved her idea and offered to put up a building if others in the community would supply the furnishings and Pioneer Mill Co. would contribute to the current expenses.

The building was erected on the grounds of the Baldwin homestead, almost on the very site of that early Seaman’s Chapel, where Dr Sereno Bishop held services for so many years and where little Henry P Baldwin, at the early age of seven, began to lead the singing and to play hymns on the melodeon at morning and evening prayer.

When the kindergarten building was ready for use, Mrs HP Baldwin decided to start settlement work also. Accordingly, in 1901, she engaged both a kindergarten teacher and a settlement worker.

Since that beginning, workers have come and workers have gone but the work has never halted. The Pioneer Mill Co have faithfully kept their agreement to assist in current expenses

Mr DT Fleming of Baldwin Packers, has been a friend of the Settlement and has generously assisted when repairs or improvements were needed. Whatever Baldwin House has accomplished has been due to her wise and motherly guidance.

The present activities may be grouped in six departments, three of which are distinctly educational (the Kindergarten, the Library and the Evening School) and three of a more or less social nature.

Lahaina has no public hall suitable for small gatherings, and so when school hours are over, the bright, airy kindergarten room is metamorphosed into a free community hall. Here the Girl Scouts have drills; here various committees transact their business; and here are held all kinds of evening entertainments.

Lahaina has no boarding place comfortable for single women. Accordingly, Baldwin House has, in late years, offered its extra rooms to young business women, who join the family and carry on co-operative housekeeping. This is proving a pleasant arrangement for all concerned and is an added form of community service.

Perhaps the most popular feature of the Settlement is the playground, with its beautiful old shade trees, its fresh green grass, its rings, swings, see-saws, horizontal bar and sand box; its gay hibiscus flowers and its bubbling drinking fountains.

“Here, where once sweet Mother Baldwin dispensed open-hearted hospitality and gathered her Hawaiian friends about her for songs and for instruction in heavenly graces, the people of the neighborhood now come and go from dawn to dark, day after day …”

“… as freely as if they owned the place, and the Girl Scout leader assembles her troop for songs and for instruction in modern efficiency.” (Gossin, The Friend, December 1, 1922)

“One of the summer festivities was a garden party for which the Settlement children made really beautiful butterflies. On these were printed the words : ‘Keep Lahaina Clean.’ At the back of the butterflies the children pasted small burrs, which stuck when the butterflies were thrown at people.”

“One afternoon a week the sewing girls have been taught cooking. Simple food which they could make in their own homes, boiled rice, potatoes, cocoa, coffee, baked custard, gingerbread, muffins, pan-cakes, etc. Much emphasis has been laid on the preserving of Hawaiian fruits, papaia marmalade, guava marmalade and jelly, mango pickles and mango sauce, all with a view to the fact that sometime this could be made an industry for Lahaina girls.”

“The kindergarten is composed of several nationalities— Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, German, and Spanish. We find the homes of the children much cleaner and more sanitary this year than ever before, as each year the people are becoming more and more educated along hygienic lines, which is indeed encouraging. We are planning work for the coming year, which we hope will be helpful in all ways in teaching the children to care for themselves and others.” (HEA Annual Report, 1912)

“How appropriate that these activities are being conducted under the auspices of the descendants of the very missionaries whose beautiful lives consecrated this home to unselfish service.”

“How satisfactory it is that all departments of the work are crowded to capacity and that the Settlement, though small in scope and modest in endeavor, seems to have made a place for itself in the lives and hearts of the community it aims to serve.” (Gossin, The Friend, December 1, 1922)

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Baldwin-House (Lahaina Restoration Foundation)-400

September 17, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pua‘aiki

“The truth here stated, that there is evermore a law of compensation and equipoise running through all things, has its comment and corroboration in the character and history of a remarkable man, through the earthly scene of whose labours I once passed, in order to reach the eastern extremity of the Island of Maui.” (Cheever)

“He is poor and despised in his person, small almost to deformity; and in his countenance, from the loss of sight, not prepossessing.”

“Still, in our judgment he bears on him the image and superscription of Christ; and if so, how striking an example of the truth of the Apostle’s declaration …”

“‘God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen: yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence!’” (Cheever)

The Pioneer Company of missionaries arrived in the Islands “early found among the thousands of their degraded inhabitants, a poor blind man, almost destitute of clothing, habitation, and friends. He was born at Waikapu … probably about the year 1785.”

“His barbarous mother, following many of her unnatural and murderous countrywomen, attempted to bury him alive in his infancy; but he was rescued by a relative; and surviving the ravages of pestilence, war, and private violence, he reached the years of maturity.”

“Like many of his countrymen of that dark period, he received a diminutive, degrading name, and was called Pu-a-a-i-ki, (Poo-ah-ah-ee-kee, little hog,) no faint shadow of his gross mind, his neglected childhood, and unrestrained youth.”

“In some of the Hawaiian arts he was, before the loss of his sight, more skilled than many of his countrymen. He was taught the lua – an art professed by a small class, by which a proficient, it was believed, could, without weapons or bonds, seize and hold a lonely traveller unacquainted with this art, break his bones, and take the spoil.”

“He learned also the hula … In the rehearsal or cantilation of these songs he excelled, and he often employed his skill in singing, drumming, and dancing for the amusement of the king and chiefs, by which he procured the means of subsistence”. (Bingham)

“Having a shagged head of black hair, unshielded by a hat from tropical suns and showers, and, at middle age, a beard growing at full length under the chin, the rest being plucked out, he roamed shoeless, without moral or mental culture, without hope, and without a Saviour.” (Bingham)

“In these circumstances, he attracted the notice of Kamāmalu, the favourite Queen of LIholiho, or Kamehameha II., who afterwards died in England.”

“His skill in the hula, or native dance, his being a hairy man, and other reasons not easily known at present, recommended him to the favour of the chiefs; not, indeed, as a companion, but as a buffoon. When sent for, he made sport for the Queen and other chiefs, and received in return a pittance of food and of his favourite awa.”

“On the arrival of the pioneers of the mission at Kailua, in the spring of 1820, Puaaiki was there with the chiefs, but he probably knew nothing of them or of their errand.”

“Having given permission to the missionaries to remain at the Islands for a season, the King and chiefs sailed for Oahu. Mr. Bingham accompanied them, and the blind dancer followed in their train.”

“On arriving at Honolulu, he had a severe fit of sickness. In addition to this, his disease of the eyes became much aggravated; so that, shut up in darkness, and unable to make his accustomed visits to the Queen, he was well nigh forgotten, and in danger of perishing.” (Cheever)

“He was visited by John Honolii, a native youth educated at Cornwall, Connecticut; who, seeing Puaaiki lying in this pitiable situation, was touched with.”

“Christian compassion, and spoke to him of the great and good Physician, who alone could heal his maladies and restore his sight. Puaaiki seemed to rouse up on hearing tidings of so unwonted a character, and he eagerly inquired, ‘What is that?’”

“On being again directed to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Physician of souls, he said at once that he would go and hear of him. As soon as he was able to crawl out of the house, he accompanied Honolii to the place of worship, and heard for the first time the glad tidings of great joy to all people, that the Son of Man had come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Cheever)

“As the claims and proffers of the gospel were made known to this man, he was led to see that not only his life of idolatry and the indulgence of heathen passions and appetites was a course of heinous sin, but that when the forms of idolatry and the love of it were laid aside, his heart was still vile, and that he needed the washing of regeneration and the blood of Christ for cleansing.”

“This poor man did not wait for the king and chiefs to mark out for him his new and wiser course; but he took it contrary to their choice. He took it, in his poverty and weakness, at the hazard of offending them, of losing his maintenance, and encountering the sneers of his associates.”

Before any of us regarded him as a true Christian, and, as I think, before he believed himself to be such, like many of his countrymen in later years, hopefully converted, and like the early converts at Jerusalem, as he beheld and admired the new and heavenly light, he began early to recommend to others a serious attention to the word and kingdom of God.” (Bingham)

“While he cherished a desire to be a doer of the word, the grandeur of the objects and the force of the truths presented to him in the gospel, helped him successfully to cultivate his mental powers. Unattracted by the objects of sight in public worship, he heard perhaps better than others; and having more leisure through the week, he reflected more.” (Bingham)

“That man was the first convert to Christianity at these Islands, and the first who received the Christian ordinance of baptism, formally introducing him to the fellowship of the universal Church, under the Christian name of Bartimeus, on the tenth day of July, 1825.”

“His name is on heavenly records, and it is familiar to the ear of Protestant Christendom, as the Blind Hawaiian Preacher, or Bartimeus L Pua‘aiki.”

“Though derided, it does not appear that he was opposed in any way, or prevented from seeking instruction; and some of the chiefs themselves, for whom he had made sport, soon after became kindly disposed to the new religion, and all of them, at length, friendly to the Mission.” (Cheever)

“Regarding himself as a sinner, and relying alone on the merits of Christ for justification, Bartimeus was distinguished for uniform humility, notwithstanding the deference of the people, the esteem of his brethren, the confidence of the missionaries, and the respect of the chiefs, that were shown him.” (Bingham)

“Residing chiefly at Wailuku for some two years, he itinerated and preached at many villages around the island, generally about three Sabbaths in a month at out-stations from five to twenty miles distant.”

“In the early part of 1842, our collective mission … say, “Bartimeus the blind preacher of Maui is regularly licensed as a preacher, and labors both abundantly and successfully in the wide and destitute regions of that island.”

“As a preacher generally solemn in his manner, Bartimeus made free use of the very language of Scripture with striking appositeness, quoting verbatim, and often book, chapter, and verse, with great accuracy and astonishing facility.”

“The verse-system, so useful to the Hawaiians, of committing to memory a verse a day of the sacred oracles, and reciting seven verses a week at the Sabbath-school, doubtless contributed materially to his familiarity with the Bible, and his readiness to aid in Sabbath-school labors, and more generally to instruct and guide those who were ready to hear him.”

“Grace, that had rescued, sanctified, and borne him thus far, sustained him as he was stepping down into the valley of the shadow of death. His conversation was in heaven.”

“Calmly and peacefully he leaned upon his Saviour, whom for twenty years he had endeavored to serve; and on Sabbath evening, September 17, 1843, he surrendered his liberated spirit into his gracious hands.” (Bingham)

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Bartimeus of the Sandwich Islands-Bingham

September 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Holy Ghost Catholic Church

Elizabeth (Isabel) was a Spanish princess who was given in marriage to King Denis of Portugal at the age of twelve. She was very beautiful and very lovable. She was also very devout, and went to Mass every day. (Catholic-org)

Queen Elizabeth died on July 4th, 1336. She was 65 years of age, perhaps somewhat older, and had incorporated into her passage through this earth prayers, sacrifices, interventions for peace among monarchs, acts of worship, and works of mercy too numerous to mention in this brief piece.

Almost three centuries after her death, His Holiness Pope Urban VIII inexplicably broke his reported vow that there would be no canonizations during his Pontificate: He canonized St. Elizabeth of Portugal on Holy Trinity Sunday, May 25th, 1625. (SaintsCatholic)

Centuries later, Portuguese began arriving in Hawai‘i in large numbers to work on plantations in 1879. Many continued to be employed by the plantations even after their contracts had been fulfilled.

Others, however, sought to take up independent work and on Maui turned especially to farming and ranching. The middle slope of Haleakala is an exceptionally fertile region and many people of Portuguese ancestry settled here, some homesteading the land.

Before long, this growing Catholic community felt the need for a priest. In 1882 James Beissel, a priest from Prussia, was assigned to Makawao, and his district extended from Ulupalakua around to Huelo. At some time between 1894-1897, he designed the Holy Ghost Church in Kula and supervised its construction. (NPS)

The two acres of land on which it was built were donated by Louis and Randal von Tempsky in Waiakoa, and the building was financed by weekly auctions of cattle by local ranchers. (Kula Catholic Community)

The octagonal shape of the structure, according to local belief, derives from the fact that it corresponded with the shape of a replica of the crown of Queen Elizabeth of Portugal, which the church housed.

The crown of St. Elizabeth plays an important role-in the Portuguese community’s Holy Ghost celebration. According to folk beliefs in the Azore Islands, from which many of Hawaii’s Portuguese population immigrated, Queen Elizabeth gave the Catholic Church her crown after she had prayed to the Holy Ghost and her people were delivered from famine. (NPS)

The richly decorated altar and the Portuguese language Stations of the Cross were commissioned by Father Beissel in 1895 and were carved by the famous artisan and master woodcarver, Ferdinand Stuflesser, from Groden, Tirol, Austria.

Shipped in nine separate crates around the Cape of Good Hope to Hawai‘i, the altar and stations were hauled by oxcart from Kahului Harbor to Waiakoa and reassembled by the faithful members of the parish.

They are recognized now as examples of museum-quality ecclesiastical art of that time. In January of 1899 Bishop Ropert Gulstan of Honolulu arrived to officiate at the formal dedication the church. (Kula Catholic Community)

This frame church, the only known nineteenth-century octagonal-shaped building in Hawai‘i, is approximately sixty feet in diameter. Its steep, corrugated-metal hipped roof is surmounted by a mock clerestory with a blind arcade and terminates with a steeple supported on a round-arched arcade with a balustrade.

Tuscan columns serve as corner posts for the eighteen-foot-high, tongue-and-groove walls, six of which have round-arched stained glass windows. The interior is a large octagonal space with the chancel at the north end opposite the entrance and choir loft.

Four central Tuscan columns carry an octagonal rib-vaulted, tongue-and-groove ceiling. The stations of the cross are unusual in that they are inscribed in Portuguese rather than Latin or English. (SAH Archipedia)

In 1991, under the leadership of Father Michael Owens, a major restoration of the church and altars was initiated, requiring the closure of the church for about one year. In 1995, the parish was able to celebrate its Centennial year in its resplendent, restored condition.

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Holy Ghost Catholic Church

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St Elizabeth

September 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Alexander House

Reverend Richard and Clarissa Chapman Armstrong and Reverend William and Mary Ann McKinney Alexander were members of the Fifth Company of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM.)

They sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts, November 26, 1831, whaleship ‘Averick,’ Captain Swain, and arrived at Honolulu, May 17, 1832, a voyage of 173 days.

“Honolulu, Friday, May 18, 1832.-Yesterday morning at day-break I found the island, Oahu, but a few miles distant. With a favorable wind, we rounded Diamond Head, and cast anchor in the outer harbor, before eight o’clock AM. ‘The town looked like a city of hay-stacks; only grass houses were to be seen; I believe there were one or two frame houses’.

“Soon we were surrounded by natives in their canoes, bringing milk and eggs for sale, some of them altogether naked, except the malo.” (Alexander Diary)

“Saturday, May 19.-We were introduced to the young king to-day (not yet king, for there was a regent). He received us very politely, welcomed us to the Hawaiian shores, acknowledged the great good the nation had received from missionary labors, and expressed great pleasure at the increase of their numbers.”

“A short address made to him in the name of the newly-arrived missionaries was interpreted to him by Brother Bingham. Then accompanied by the king and his chiefs we’ walked to the house of Kaahumanu. … She received us with tears of joy. She was very ill and unable to speak much; we therefore soon withdrew.” (Alexander Diary)

Shortly after arrival, Clarissa wrote about a subject most suspect was not a part of the missionary lifestyle … On October 31, 1832, she noted, “Capt Brayton has given me a little beer cask – it holds 6 quarts – Nothing could have been more acceptable.”

“I wanted to ask you for one, but did not like to. O how kind providence has been & is to us, in supplying our wants. The board have sent out hops – & I have some beer now a working. I should like to give you a drink.”

Reverend Alexander visited the Marquesas and the Society Islands with Messrs. Whitney and Tinker in 1832 investigating it as the possible site for a missionary station.

The Alexanders, Armstrongs and Parkers made an attempt to establish a station in the Marquesas, July 2, 1833 – May 12, 1834; that mission was surrendered to the London Missionary Society. (The arrangement had been made that the equator should be the dividing line between the English and American missions.) They returned to Hawai‘i.

After a few mission assignments in the Islands Armstrong was assigned on Maui and built a house, there in in 1836 (the Armstrongs lived there for three years. (The Armstrongs later moved to O‘ahu where he replaced Hiram Bingham as the pastor of Kawaiahaʻo Church in 1840.)

The Armstrong house has walls of field stones 20 inches thick; the coral and sand used in the construction were burned to make lime and hauled to the site from the ocean by ox car. It has ohia rafters. The two-story, stone residence is termed “the oldest building in Wailuku.”

Alexander was stationed at Waiʻoli, 1834-1843, and at Lahainaluna from 1843 to 1856. For reasons of health, 1856, by advice of physicians, Alexander resigned his post at Lahainaluna, after having there labored thirteen years, and took charge for a few months of the ranch of Ulapalakua, as an excellent place to recruit his health.

In 1849, Alexander was granted by the mission one year of respite from school teaching. He spent this year in surveying land for the Hawaiian Government in Kamaole, on East Maui. Here, at an elevation of twenty-five hundred feet above the sea, he lived in a tent, and was engaged in cutting trails through the forest to divide the country into sections for sale to the Hawaiians.

He preached regularly on Sundays in this district. He also did surveying during the vacations of the school, and thereby both recruited his health and obtained the means to educate his children. In 1851 he stopped receiving financial support from the ABCFM, thereafter continuing his work with local recompense.

He worked at Lahainaluna on Saturdays for money to educate his nine children (five sons and four daughters) and when his health failed he did surveying to be out of doors. He accepted a call from the church at Wailuku where he preached first on December 25, 1856 and was installed in January, 1857.

The Alexanders visited the United States seeking funds and a new president (Cyrus Mills) for O‘ahu College (Punahou School), 1858-1860. In 1863 Mr. Alexander founded the Theological School at Wailuku.

He resigned his pastorate in 1869 to give more time to the Theological School, continuing to preach, however, and assisting in the pastoral work of the church. (HMCS) In 1874 he was obliged, by failing health, to relinquish the Theological School, and it was removed to Honolulu.

The quaint old Alexander mansion “became a sort of ideal home, beautiful with many varieties of tropical fruit trees, with palms and ornamental shrubbery and flowering vines, delightful as the center of a large circle of children, dwelling mostly on the same island, and as a place of unbounded hospitality, and attractive by the magnetic kindness, the sunny humor, and the beauty and power of the piety there displayed.”

“In this home the desire long previously expressed by Mr. Alexander, for a reunion of his family, was at length fulfilled; and in 1873 a gathering was held of all his family, the first and the only complete gathering of them ever held, then twenty-nine in number, counting parents, children and grandchildren, amongst whom there had not yet been a single death.” (Alexander)

A long cherished plan of visiting his son Samuel, in California, led Mr. Alexander and his wife to leave Wailuku on the 26th of April, 1884. Mr. Alexander took walks every day, sometimes going a distance of two miles, and was in better health and spirits than for several years previous, until his last sickness suddenly occurred.

“Wednesday, August 13.-The long conflict is over. Father lies by me at rest, not father though, he is above with a crown of victory. Oh, what a terrible long valley of the shadow of death he had to pass through to victory!”

“He kept his consciousness to the last, but his power of speech failed. … He breathed very peacefully at the last, the breath growing fainter and fainter, until we hardly knew when he ceased to breathe.” (Samuel Alexander)

The Armstrong house was the home of missionaries William and Mary Alexander between 1856 and 1884. Sugar planter HP Baldwin married Emily Whitney Alexander in the home in 1879.

After the death of Mr. Alexander the building passed into the hands of Mr. Bailey until 1905, when the property came into the possession of Mrs. HP Baldwin. It had been her girlhood home.

Her children bought it and presented it to her. The house was restored and fitted up to be the parsonage home of the Hawaiian Board’s missionary for central Maui. Rev. and Mrs. RB Dodge lived there.

In 1919, Mrs. Baldwin deeded this property to the Maui Aid Association with the understanding that it should continue to be used as a parsonage for the Board’s missionary. (Gossin, The Friend, December 1, 1922)

The building is currently occupied by the Maui Architectural Group, but is not open to the public. It is located on Main Street near the intersection with High. (Lots of information here is from HMCS, Alexander, Bishop and The Friend, December 1, 1922.)

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Alexander House-Wailuku

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August 18, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maui Jinsha Shrine

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. Sugar was the dominant economic force in Hawaiʻi for over a century.

A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge; the answer was imported labor. Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants” (providing the legal basis for contract-labor system,) labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.) Then, in 1868, approximately 150-Japanese came to Hawaiʻi to work on sugar plantations and another 40 to Guam. This unauthorized recruitment and shipment of laborers, known as the gannenmono (“first year men”,) marked the beginning of Japanese labor migration overseas. (JANM)

In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawaiʻi’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi; this improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

The first 943-government-sponsored, Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants to Hawaiʻi arrived in Honolulu on February 8, 1885. Subsequent government approval was given for a second set of 930-immigrants who arrived in Hawaii on June 17, 1885. More followed, and they brought their religion with them – some were Shinto.

Shintoism is not Buddhism; but, the two religions are compatible. While Shintoism involves the prehistoric deities of Japan, Buddhism worships the Buddhist gods imported from India, as well as the departed spirits of the family. (Johnson)

The name Shinto is translated to mean ‘The Way of the Gods;’ it embraces natural and ancestor worship. Shintoism has no system of theology or ethics, nor sacred scriptures or books such as the Bible or Koran. It teaches the innate goodness of the human heart. (Johnson)

There were once six Shinto shrines on Maui, located at Wailuku, Pa‘ia, Ma‘alaea and Kahului. The Maui Jinsha Shinto Shrine is the only remaining original Shinto shrine on Maui, and one of very few left in the entire state.

The Maui Jinsha was established in 1914 by Masaho Matsumura who was born in Hiroshima and came to Maui from Kona. More than 460 names were gathered, representing those who supported the establishment of the Maui Jinsha shrine. From this group, a nine member Board of Trustees led by Mr. Kaneko was formed.

A building committee, made up of seventy-six local officials from various Maui communities, served under the Board of Trustees. The building committee selected the shrine’s original site in Kahului, next to the Japanese Elementary School. (Mason)

Construction of the Haiden began in 1916 (the fifth year of Taisho) with the help of the 1,014 individuals who each pledged a dollar. The painting of the “1000 Horses” by the artist Seppo Sawada commemorates the dollar contribution effort

The Maui Jinsha was built in commemoration of the Emperor Yoshihito (the Taisho Emperor). Up until this point, there were no shrines dedicated to the emperor of Japan in Hawaii.

The Emperor Meiji passed away in 1911 and Emperor Taisho took his place the same year. This event sparked interest in establishing a shrine dedicated to the emperor of Japan, who was thought of as a god.

The shrine houses three gods directly connected to the emperor of Japan: the Amaterasu Omigami, the Okuni Nushi-no-mikoto, and the Meiji emperor.

The Amaterasu Omigami is the central god of the Ise Jingu and is said to have come down from earth and landed on Izumo Kuni and gave birth to Japan.

The distinctive entrance structure of Shinto shrines is called a torii, usually described as a gateway or mystical gateway. Nearby is a washbasin where the physical act of washing one’s hands and rinsing one’s mouth symbolizes spiritual cleansing in preparation of entering the church.

As originally constructed, the Maui Jinsha exhibited the traditional form of a Shinto shrine, with the Haiden (worship space) and the Honden (space for the gods) built as two separate structures. The Honden and Haiden were built as open structures connected by a small bridge or stairway (tsuro).

The Honden was completed in 1915 and the Haiden was finished a year later due to budgetary constraints (Fig. 6). Another structure for the presentation of shibai (Japanese folk plays) was completed at that time.

The structure was built by local craftsmen under the supervision of a master carpenter trained in Japan. The structure is made of wood using the traditional Kiwari system as the design and construction guidelines for this structure.

The Kiwari system can be compared to the orders of ancient Greece, because it uses the column span and diameter to establish the proportions of the entire structure.

The Kiwari uses the post span (a) and the post diameter (1/10a) to establish rafter spacing, bracketing size, beam size and roof size and height of several types of structures in Japan including temples, shrines, and halls.

The Kiwari developed as a system during the Edo Period (1603-1868). It is also likely that the Japanese measuring unit of the shaku was used to build this structure. The builders of the Maui Jinsha were somewhat limited to the extent with which they could adhere to these principles, due to the limitations of materials, time, and funds.

In 1924, the Maui Jinsha Kyodan formally applied for the “incorporation of the Maui Jinsha Kyodan of Kahului, Maui”, and on September 22 of that year they received the charter and were recognized as an official religious organization by the Territory of Hawaii.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the shrine was closed, and in 1942 the Shinto priest and his family were evicted from their adjacent home.

In 1951 they moved the shrine to Wailuku, The Honden was moved intact and the Haiden was disassembled and reconstructed on the new site, which was completed in 1954.

The shrine shares the site with three other structures: a Hall for shibui performances which also served as a Japanese language school (no longer active), a kitchen building and a private residence for Reverend and family.

The Hall was moved from the original site along with the shrine, and the kitchen building appears to have been constructed in 1954, at the time of the shrine relocation. The two-story residence was built in the mid- 1980s. (Lots of information here is from Mason, NPS and Historic Hawai‘i.)

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