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Sake

When you drink sake
You feel like the springtime,
And the loud cries
Of impatient creditors
On the outside
Sound in your ears
Like the voices of nightingales
Singing most sweetly.
(Japanese drinking song, Burton Holmes Travelogues, 1870)

Sake is a traditional alcoholic beverage in Japan. It is made through fermentation, like beer and wine.  Sake is made from rice, a staple food in Japan. (NRIB)

It is not exactly known when people began making sake in Japan; however, it is believed an alcoholic beverage made from rice was already made in the Yayoi period (300 BC- 250 AD) when rice cultivation was brought from China to Japan.  (NRIB)

A Dec 18, 1910 article in the San Francisco Call notes, “It is said that 7 per cent of the entire rice crop of Japan goes to the making of this amber fluid, which contains about 13 per cent of alcohol and is characterized by five distinct tastes, according to experts – ‘sweetness, sharpness, sourness, bitterness and astringency.’”

In Hawai‘i, a century after Captain James Cook’s arrival, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.  However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge.  The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

Japanese came to Hawai‘i to work on the sugar plantations between 1885 and 1924, when limits were placed on the numbers permitted entry.

It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands. The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures.  Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix. 

Most suggest the first Sake brewery outside of Japan was in Hawaii, the Honolulu Japanese Sake Brewery Co. Many people still believe that to be true, but it was likely the fourth sake brewery established in the US.  The Japan Brewing Co was incorporated in Berkeley, California in June 1901. In addition, two other California sake breweries were established in 1903 and 1907. (Auffrey)

However, the Honolulu sake brewery was more successful, more long lasting, and left a much greater legacy than any other of the early Sake breweries in the US. (Auffrey)

“The Honolulu Sake Brewery and Ice Co Ltd, was built in 1908 by Tajiro Sumida and Tomokuni Iwanaga as the Honolulu Japanese Sake Brewery Co, Ltd.”

“‘The reason it was started is because of the early Japanese immigrants who came to Hawaii to work as plantation laborers,’ Emil A Nomura, the brewery’s assistant brewmaster, said the other day.”

“‘You see,’ Nomura said, ‘with the meager wages these workers earned, there was barely enough money left to indulge in the privilege of drinking sake, the Japanese people’s favorite drink. And sake from Japan was expensive, because of import duties and things.’”

“To remedy that drinking man’s urge for his favorite brew, the Sumida-Iwanaga partnership designed the world’s first warm-weather sake brewery.”

“The new brewery differed from any traditional Japanese brewery because it was refrigerated and capable of producing sake all year.  ‘The factory had to be refrigerated because sake has to be made in a cool room (as cool as 43 degrees),’ Shinsaburo S Sumida, the brewery’s present president said recently.”

For a time, it was “The only brewery in the world which makes sake year round.”  “Sumida explained that until the Pauoa brewery was built by his father and Iwanaga, sake had only been made in winter months, usually from the end of October through February, because its fermentation-mold stages of brewing are easily spoiled by heat.”

The Hawai‘i sake brewery faced several other challenges …

Prohibition in 1920s … However, “The booming brewery, however, didn’t let the no-booze era dampen its spirits.  Instead, it froze brewing operations, turned up the brewery’s refrigerators, reopened as an ice factory and skated through the lean Prohibition (and Depression) years.”

“With repeal, in 1934, the ice house thawed itself out, increased its working capital from $150,000 to $250,000 (400 shareholders), imported five sake experts from Japan to supervise the installation of new machinery and went back into the brewing business.”

“With World War II came new problems: a rice shortage which didn’t allow rice to be used as anything but food and a sociological shakeup in Japanese American society.”

“‘It was an order,’ recalls Sumida. ‘We couldn’t use rice for making sake, so at that time we started making shoyu (soy sauce).’  And so the Pauoa brewery-factory shoyued its way through the war, and eventually resumed sake operations in 1948.”  (SB & Adv Jan 17, 1971)  The Honolulu Sake Brewery ceased operations in 1989.

A side story on Japan’s sake industry …

The Japanese started producing small glass floats in the early-1900s and the first Asian floats came ashore along the West Coast just before 1920.

These Japanese floats are part of early recycling efforts – initial Japanese floats we made from recycled sake bottles.  Most floats are shades of green because that is the color of glass from these sake bottles (especially after long exposure to sunlight).

To accommodate different fishing styles and nets, the Japanese experimented with many different sizes and shapes of floats, ranging from 2 to 20 inches in diameter. Most were rough spheres, but some were cylindrical or “rolling pin” shaped.

The earliest floats, including most Japanese glass fishing floats, were hand made by a glassblower. Recycled glass, especially old sake bottles, was typically used and air bubbles in the glass are a result of the rapid recycling process.

By 1939, millions of Japanese glass floats were being used; although Japanese glass fishing floats are no longer being manufactured for fishing, there are thousands still floating in the Pacific Ocean.

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McGrew Point

“A name that will stand out prominently in Hawaiian history as long as history endures, is that of Dr John S McGrew, famous physician and esteemed citizen of the old Hawaii …”

“… whose long activities in promotion of a political union between the islands and the  United States won him the title of ‘The Father of Annexation.’”

“Dr McGrew is believed to have been the first proponent of the proposition that Hawaii should be American, the first man to realize that under the American flag the islands and their people would find their greatest opportunity and the fullest realization of their destiny.”

“‘Annexation’ McGrew, he was called by King Kalakaua, who, although naturally enough opposed to Dr McGrew’s political program, often expressed his admiration for the doctor’s sincerity and honesty of purpose.”

“Dr McGrew was an earnest advocate of annexation long before the Hawaiian monarchy was destroyed by revolution, and not for an instant did he waver from his purpose.”

“When annexation finally became an accomplished fact in 1898, five years after the revolution, Dr McGrew was hailed as ‘The Father of Annexation’ …”

“…  just as Judge Sanford B. Dole, president of the Republic of Hawaii and first governor of the American Territory, became known in later years as ‘The Grand Old Man of Hawaii.’ Two heroic figures in the evolution of Hawaii were Dole and McGrew.” (Nellist)

His first wife died in 1851.  “At the close of the [Civil] war, Dr McGrew married Pauline Gillet at Washington, DC, and the couple started on a world tour which brought them to Hawaii in 1866, where Dr McGrew abandoned the tour and decided to enter medical practice in Honolulu.”

“Upon their arrival in Hawaii, Dr and Mrs McGrew became established in a homestead located on the present site of the Alexander Young Hotel. Their home became a Honolulu landmark and was a famous social center of the city.”

“Dr McGrew was widely known for his hospitality, entertaining visitors from all parts of the world. Kate Field, the noted woman writer, died at the McGrew home while making a tour of Hawaii.”

“The old mansion was built in the 40’s by Dr RAS Wood and was owned at the time of Dr McGrew’s arrival in Hawaii by General McCook, one of the “Fighting McCook’s” of Civil War fame. Dr McGrew and family later purchased the JF Hackfeld home at Lunalilo and Emerson Streets”.

“For many years he was in charge of the Marine Hospital. He served as the first president of the Honolulu Medical Society. Maintaining the practice of his profession at a high standard, he amassed a considerable fortune, acquiring real estate and stock in growing business concerns.”

“Dr McGrew was a member of the commission which cooperated with Generals Alexander and Schofield in making a survey for an American naval base at Pearl Harbor, as provided for by the Reciprocity Treaty.  He assisted in making plans for the coaling station and lived to see a portion of the harbor improvements completed.”

“McGrew family has owned 44-acre McGrew Point at Aiea for the past 70 years [since about the 1870s]. The area has a mile of waterfrontage on the Waianae side of the peninsula and the home of [McGrew’s grandson] on the other side.”

“The family devoted years of effort of establishment of a plantation of fruit trees and other general improvements. Dignitaries from around the world, including top ranking army and navy officers, have been guests at the Cooper home.”

“[Katherine McGrew was born in Honolulu in February, 1873 is the daughter of Dr John S McGrew. She married Charles Bryant Cooper on March 24, 1897.]” Adv, Aug 21, 1946)

In 1944, “An order giving the federal government possession of about 49 acres at McGrew point in the Pearl Harbor area has been signed by Judge J Frank McLaughlin.” (Hnl SB, July 18, 1944)

The Loko Pa‘aiau Fishpond is located at McGrew Point Navy housing, Oahu, Hawaii. It is one of only three fishponds out of an original 22 in the Pearl Harbor area which are still relatively intact. (Navy)

Efforts are underway to restore it. Currently located on land leased for Navy housing, Aliʻi Pauahi Hawaiian Civic Club and the ʻAiea Community Association see Loko Paʻaiau as a place where local community members, visitors, and military families can come together to build relationships to the land and each other.

In partnership with the Navy, local community groups involved in the restoration of Loko Paʻaiau have focused their efforts on bringing people together to raise cultural awareness of the fishponds and connect people to the history and culture of the area.  (McDaniel) McGrew Point now has military housing.

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Hawaiians Away From The Islands

“So many Hawaiians living in California! 1863.”

“O Kamaaina of my dear land of birth; Aloha oukou: – I was just in California, and came back. I had much interaction with Hawaiians living there, and I saw most of them who are living in that large land; and by asking, I obtained the names of some who I have not seen.”

“You maybe want me to tell you those who I came across there? You all answer, “‘Yes, that is a good thing indeed; we will find there brethren that were lost to us, who we mistakenly thought were dead; come to find out they are living in California.’”

“Yes, I will tell you, and I will also where they live; so that you all can write to them. Look carefully at the names of the places below, and that is what to write outside of the letter so that it goes straight; and one more thing, affix a Postage Stamp (Poo Leta), of five cents price.”

“The majority of Hawaiians in California move from place to place, and do not settle in one place, therefore accuracy of the list of names stated below is not certain, because some people may have moved away at this time.”

“There is one more thing before I stop. With the grace of the Lord, I intend to return to California next week, to carry on the word of God amongst the Indians and the Hawaiians in that land, and I ask of you, all of your brethren of this archipelago, pray hard to God that he makes the work progress among the kamaaina and malihini who live in California.”

“With much aloha, Gulick Jr. [Kulika Opio]. Honolulu, September 2, 1863.” (Kuokoa, 9/12/1863

The town of Vernon, located just south of the junction of the Feather and Sacramento Rivers and roughly eighteen miles to the north of Sacramento, was originally established as a trading center in 1849 for miners of the Feather and Yuba Rivers.

It was centrally connected to the various towns and mining communities in the gold-mining region by a network of rivers. Within a few short years it was superseded by Marysville in the north, a town that became an important metropolis of the Feather and Yuba river mines. (Farnham)

However, Vernon remained an active agricultural town until the late 19th century. The evolution of Vernon as a Kanaka “fishing” colony appears to have its origins on the opposite side of the Sacramento River, at the former town known as Fremont in Yolo County.

In the nineteenth century Kanaka laborers were moving between the two neighboring communities regularly, up until 1870.  (Farnham)

On April 17, 1861, just days after the US Civil War had commenced, an editor with Ka Hae Hawaii requested that immigrants in California respond to accusations by “Dr. Frick,” a Honolulu foreigner, that labor conditions in California mimicked the conditions of “na keiki hookaumahaia o Aperika” (burdened African children).

The editor asked:

  1. Are you experiencing difficulties in your living conditions in Caifornia with regards to the justice system of the country?
  2. Do you suffer difficulty due to the cold and the heat?
  3. Do you suffer from famine and going without food or due to bad food in that country?
  4. Are you without proper clothing, wool clothes and blankets?
  5. Are you exhausted from the work you do there?
  6. Do your foreign bosses burden you with difficulties?
  7. Are you sad, lonely, uncomfortable in your living conditions there or not?
  8. Are there sicknesses and vices that tempt the soul and body of man in that country, more so than the vices found here [in Hawaii]?

Only one Hawaiian, a fisherman by the name of Thomas B Kamipele (Campbell) living in Vernon, California, answered the newspaper’s inquiry. He wrote in part:

“I offer you an olive flower. Will you please take it to the four corners of your country so that parents, friends of those living here in California may know. . . “

“Life here is tiresome and one works hard, and you work hard everyday but do not realize expansion [wealth], but experience hunger as your reward for the day.”

“Recent years have seen better times here in California.”

“These years in which we live, everyone living up in the mountains digs for gold, but do not get a worthy pay for the effort. What they earn is the pangs of hunger and a want of food and fish.”

“And because of this lack [of pay] they cannot return to their homeland. It is just as it is said in letters of the those who write to their friends living here in California.”  (Ka Hae Hawaii, July 3, 1861, Farnham)

“Perhaps more importantly, Kamipele indicated that many immigrants had become frustrated with contract employment in California. “Ka hana hoolimalima me na haku haole, ua pili aku no i ke ano o na kauwa hooluhi” (The act of contract labor with white owners is very much like hard slavery), he explained.”

“He cited as an example: ‘One white man, Coneki, brought some Hawaiians from the homeland, about fifty of them in total. Among that group was Kekuaiwahie and Kapua‘a who worked with their boss for six months. They were not paid at all for their labor. They left and each went their separate ways.” (Farnham)

“Just as in Hawaii, Kanaka Hawai’i laborers in California were beginning to reject contract work with haole employers in favor of independent work in more ideal environments. The Sacramento River of the Central Valley offered one such environment.”  (Farnham) (Lots here is from April Farnham.)

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Kaiopihi

Reverend Elias and Ellen (Howell) Bond sailed with the Ninth Company of Missionaries from Boston.  The Bonds arrived in Honolulu in May of 1841. They were then assigned to Kohala.

Reverend Isaac Bliss, an elderly missionary in Kohala, had already completed a main house of what is known as the Bond Homestead compound when Bond arrived in Kohala in June 1841.

The compound eventually included the Bond Homestead (1841) Kalāhikiola Church (completed in 1855) and Kohala Seminary (Kohala Girl’s School – complex founded in 1872.)

The area was described in an 1849 account (in ‘The Island World of the Pacific’) as follows: “It stands in the center of an area of some five or six acres, enclose with a neat stone wall, and having a part of it cultivated as a garden, adorned with flowering shrubs and trees, as the pineapple, guava, acacia, mimosa, tamarind, kukui, mulberry, geranium, banana, Pride of China, sugar cane, etc.”

“The house is thatched with long leaves of the hala-tree (Pandanus), and has a very pretty, neat appearance, in connection with that tasteful keeping of the walks and grounds, like the pictures we have of thatched cottages and rural scenes of Old England.”

To provide employment to the people in the region and support his church and schools, Reverend Bond founded Kohala Sugar Company, known as “The Missionary Plantation,” in 1862.

“On December 23rd, 1876 there arrived for the Kohala plantation thirty Christian Chinese, four with their wives, and two children. The following year the little Oriental colony had increased to forty-five, the second company of Christian Chinese arriving in January.”

“How eagerly Father Bond welcomed them to his fold and how he rejoiced in the greater freedom of action furnished by plantation dividends, may be seen in a letter of October 17, 1877:”

“‘I sent in August for a minister to preach to our English speaking population. …. Now I write to see if we can obtain from the coast a Chinese Evangelist for these growing numbers of Chinese among us with no possible medium through which we may speak to them of Jesus.’”

“‘The Master has wonderfully helped us in all our plans and I will trust Him. I think I have learned more and more to trust Him, of late.’”

“And soon the long anticipated arrival and labors of Kong Tet Yin were announced: ‘March, 1878. … My errand to Honolulu was to get a Chinese, Colporteur and Evangelist. It was an unexpected opening, the man with highest testimonials from China and Australia.’”

“‘The Master favored my errand. I secured the man, and secured from the Kohala Sugar Company the means for paying his salary. Thanks to God for all.’”

“‘April, 1879. …. Our Chinese work is gradually getting into shape. I am much pleased with the Evangelist, though I sorely feel the difficulty involved in our inability to communicate freely, he having no knowledge of the English.  ‘He is a good speaker and manifestly a man of character.’”

“‘We have just arranged for an independent Chinese service on the Sabbath, excepting on Communion and Monthly Concert Sabbaths when they will meet with us. This arrangement will probably draw in more of the pagan element among our Chinese population.’”

“‘My idea was to have them meet with us only on Communion Sabbaths, but they wished to meet also on Monthly Concerts, and probably, till they attain to a somewhat enlarged measure of the habit and grace of giving for religious purposes, it will do them no harm to meet with our native congregation on such Sabbaths.’”

“Thus, all went well, if slowly, with the little ‘Chinese Zion’ in Kohala. February of 1883 saw a plot of ground given by the plantation and set off for a church building for the Chinese [a chapel called Kaiopihi] the first in the Islands.” 

“In May of the same year a visit was recorded from ‘Father Damon’, who shared to the full Mr. Bond’s interest in the Chinese and was one of the first to organize Christian work among them in Honolulu.  On July 29th of this same year the Chinese church body of Kohala was formally organized.” (Damon, Father Bond)

Kohala is a good example of the development of churches in a plantation community. Kalahikiola Church was the Hawaiian church where Father Elias Bond was pastor.

When the plantation was started, a Chinese church soon came. Later Kohala Union Church came into being for English-speaking residents, followed by a Japanese church in 1894 and a Filipino church in 1933.

By 1942 all churches except the Filipino church were having services in English. The Japanese and Chinese churches merged, and a few years later all except the Filipino church merged with Kalahikiola.  (Mulholland)

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Queen Elizabeth II

On her first visit to the Islands, she had to ask for a ‘garland.’ (February 1, 1963)

“There were no flowers, hula girls or Hawaiian music waiting for the royal couple during a 1 hour and 7 minute visit. It had been thought the Queen and the Prince would remain in their chartered 707 jetliner during refueling.”

“The Honolulu stopover was in keeping with the royal flight that has been delayed and diverted because of bad weather. The British monarch originally was to fly to Vancouver, B.C., from London. Snow forced the plane to land at Edmonton, Alta.”

“The Queen got halfway across the Pacific last night to Hawaii but had to turn around because of heavy winds in Honolulu. Gusts were registered at 60 mph at Honolulu International Airport.”

“When the royal pair finally made it today, the plane had to wait 10 minutes while their arrival spot was vacated by a loading commercial jetliner. Then there was another delay until Burns showed up.  He had been Informed the Queen and Prince were due 30 minutes after they actually arrived. Smiling but tired, the Queen waved to a crowd of 400 on arrival.”

Elizabeth, however, “left the plane with her husband, chatted with Gov. John A. Burns and looked at Honolulu’s new airport terminal. As she reboarded the royal aircraft, she remarked that she’d like to have a lei.”

“The American security chief for British Overseas Airways Corporation John Buckley of New York, dashed 100 yards to a florist shop in the terminal, picked up a red carnation lei for the Queen and a pink carnation garland for the Prince. They were presented to the couple in the plane. A box of orchids also was taken aboard.” (Hawaii Times, Feb 2, 1963)

She came back a month later, on a refueling stop on her way back from Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand and Australia. 4,500 people were waiting to see her.

On this return, “Conch Shells blew”, “An eight-man honor guard from Kamehameha ROTC” greeted her and “Hawaii gave a radiant Queen Elizabeth of England a Royal Hawaiian welcome” – including “Governor Burns greeted Britain’s reigning monarch at planeside with a four-strand, golden-orange ilima lei.”

“Governor Burns presented Elizabeth with the Hawaiian Flag boxed in a koa chest.” ““Noting the Union Jack which is a part of the Hawaii state flag, Burns termed it a token of our ‘love and respect for the British people of whom you are the reigning monarch.’” (Advertiser, March 28, 1963)

On their next Island visit (March 3, 1970), “It was the voices of young Hawaii that enchanted three members of Britain’s royal family when they stopped for an hour at Honolulu International Airport”. They “slowed their pace when they heard 45 members of the Kamehameha Girls Concert Glee Club singing an old Hawaiian song, ‘Waialae.’”(Adv, Mar 4, 1970)

Then, in 1975, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip came to the Islands for a 2-day visit, “they were en route to Japan for a state visit after a Commonwealth meeting in Jamaica.”  “This was the first time the British monarch ever has stayed overnight in Hawaii.”

“Elizabeth and Philip originally had planned to rest on Guam but changed plans hastily after Guam became the site for housing thousands of South Vietnamese refugees.”  (SB, May 1, 1975)

They dined at Washington Place, “At the Queen’s request, the dinner guest list was limited to 24. …The songs of Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last monarch who lived in Washington Place, were featured in the entertainment provided by Kawai Cockett and his Lei Kukui group and Noelani Mahoe’s Leo Nahinahi group.”  (SB, May 2, 1975)

“British Vice Consul John Houlton said the royal couple spent much of their vacation time relaxing in their suite at the Kahala Hilton.

“England’s Queen Mother Elizabeth came to Hawaii in 1966 and won admirers around the world as she wore a pikake lei and danced the hula with Duke Kahanamoku.  Queen Elizabeth II came to Hawaii on Lei Day and accepted a bouquet of flowers because, she explained the British Consul, a lei would be clumsy for the queen as she walked the receiving line” (Adv, May 2, 1975)

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born on April 21, 1926, the first child of Albert, Duke of York, second son of George V, and his duchess, the former Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. She was educated at home; despite not attending school, Elizabeth proved adept at languages and made a detailed study of constitutional history.

In 1939, the 13-year-old princess accompanied the King and Queen to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. Together with her sister Margaret, she was escorted by one of the cadets, her third cousin, Prince Philip of Greece.

She kept his picture in her room and they exchanged letters. By 1944, when she was 18, Elizabeth was clearly in love with him. On November 20, 1947 the couple married in Westminster Abbey.  Their first child, Charles, was born in 1948, followed by a sister, Anne, who arrived in 1950.

But her father King, having suffered considerable stress during the war years, was terminally ill with lung cancer, brought about by a lifetime of heavy smoking.

Elizabeth heard of the death of the King while staying at a game lodge in Kenya and the new Queen immediately returned to London.  Her Coronation in June 1953 was televised, despite the opposition of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

World War Two had served to hasten the end of the British Empire, and by the time the new Queen set off on a lengthy tour of the Commonwealth in November 1953, many former British possessions, including India, had gained independence.

Throughout the 1950s, more countries hauled down the union flag and the former colonies and dominions now came together as a voluntary family of nations.

Encouraged by her husband, notoriously impatient with the court’s stuffiness, the Queen began to adapt to the new order. The practice of receiving debutantes at court was abolished and the term “the Monarchy” was gradually replaced by “the Royal Family”.

On September 9, 2015 she became the longest reigning monarch in British history, surpassing the reign of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria. In typical style she refused to make any fuss saying the title was “not one to which I have ever aspired”.  Less than a year later, in April 2016, she celebrated her 90th birthday.

On the occasion of her Silver Jubilee, she recalled the pledge she had made on a visit to South Africa 30 years before.  “When I was 21, I pledged my life to the service of our people and I asked for God’s help to make good that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgement, I do not regret, or retract, one word of it.”

Officially known as ‘Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith’ served as queen from February 6, 1952 until to her death on September 8, 2022. (BBC)

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