Peter T Young

September 27, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Yuimaaru

Yuimaaru is seen when communities support one another, especially in times of need. It is a reminder for all of us to live yuimaaru, in both small and big endeavors and decisions. (Haworth)

Uchinanchu is the term used by Okinawan immigrants and their descendants in Hawai‘i to identify themselves as an ethnic group distinct from the Naichi of Japan’s four main islands. Seven such were …

… Ryoshin Agena (native of Uruma City,) Yasuo Uezu (native of Uruma City,) Shinei Shimabukuro (native of Uruma City,) Yoshio Yamashiro (native of Uruma City,) Genbi Tonaki (native of Nanjo City,) Ushikichi Nakama (native of Itoman City) and Shohei Miyazato (native of the town of Motobu)

They are also referred to as the ‘seven heroes’ – a monument and musical, Umi Kara Buta ga Yatte Kita (Pigs from the Sea,) commemorate them.

Uruma City Mayor Toshio Shimabukuro commented, “We would like to show the bond between Hawai‘i and Uchinanchu to future generations through the monument and the musical performance.” (Ryukyu Shimpo)

Okinawa is located approximately 350 miles south of mainland Japan. It is the largest island in the Ryukyu Island chain, the southernmost prefecture of the then-Japanese Empire.

In WWII, the Pacific campaign started December 7, 1941 after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The campaign crossed all over the Pacific; the Japanese initially had the upper hand in the air and on sea and land.

After almost 4 years of naval, air, and land battles the tide had turned and by March 1945 the campaign had nearly reached its culminating point with American domination of the sea and air. It was now just Japanese territory that needed to be seized before the Japanese would admit defeat.

In a time when an invasion of mainland Japan was necessary to end the war, Okinawa was an essential preparation ground and jumping-off point for the impending invasion. (SSgt Frame)

The bombardment of Okinawa commenced on March 23, 1945 and lasted until the morning of the land invasion (codenamed Operation Iceberg) on April 1.

On June 23, 1945, all major combat operations ended on the island of Okinawa. Over the 3-month battle more than 8- million artillery and mortar rounds were fired, the equivalent of more than 1-round per second.

More than 12,000-American servicemembers were killed and more than 38,000-wounded or missing. The Japanese military lost more than 110,000, but the greatest loss of life by the Okinawan people.

Anywhere from 40,000 to 150,000 of the Okinawans perished during the battle. Even with all the carnage, it was at Okinawa that the largest number of Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner (more than 7,000 – an unprecedented number). (SSgt Frame)

“The ravages of the Pacific War (of WWII) brought disaster and catastrophic damage to the island of Okinawa. Under these harsh conditions, the people of the island were forced to eke out a living, even as they struggled to find food amidst the scorched landscape.”

“An indispensable source of food, Okinawa contained over 100,000 pigs in the prewar period. After the war, this number had plummeted to just 7,731 (according to the Ryukyu Government’s 1946 records), leaving Okinawa in a dire situation.” (Monument Text)

The above named seven Uchinanchu (Okinawan immigrants) stepped forward to help those from their homeland. They raised over $47,000 from Hawai‘i’s Uchinanchu community, purchased 550 pigs in Oregon and took them to Okinawa after World War II.

The ship that they contracted for the journey was called the USS John Owen; it departed for Okinawa on August 31, 1948, and the voyage became a life and death struggle as the ship was assaulted by raging storms and battered by tall waves.

The journey was further delayed by the need to take a roundabout route in order to avoid sea mines left over from the war. By the 3 week mark, the passenger’s water supply and the feed for the pigs was almost completely depleted.

After 28 grueling days at sea, the passengers finally caught sight of the Okinawan islands on September 27. The Owen made landfall on White Beach, in the Katsuren Heshikiya region of Uruma City. (Okinawa-jp)

These pigs helped revive the Okinawan pig farming industry and were a source of nourishment for the Okinawan people, who were starving in the aftermath of the war.

The pigs, which are easy to breed because of their high fertility rate, are believed to have helped ward off starvation and provided a steady food source for many Okinawans. (Japan Times)

This movement which began in Hawai‘i eventually spread to the American mainland and South America, and in time aid began to pour into Okinawa from all across the globe. (Okinawa-jp)

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Hawaii Pigs arriving at Okinawa

7 from Hawaii who brought pigs

Pigs from the Sea-Memorial

Pigs from the Sea Memorial

September 26, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Water Rights

The Hawaiian word for ʻlaw’ or ʻrule’ is kānāwai – it is interesting to note that the literal translation of kānāwai is ʻrelating to water.’ Traditional Hawaiian law initially developed around the management and use of water. (Sproat)

Emma Metcalf Beckley Nakuina, Commissioner of Private Ways and Water Rights, wrote an article “Ancient Hawaiian Water Rights and Some Customs Pertaining to Them” published in 1893 in Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual. The following are portions of that article.

Water rights were primarily for lo‘i (pondfields,) that is, for kalo (taro) culture; potato patches, bananas or sugar cane had no recognized claim on a water right in the rotation.

The cultivation of these, regarded as dry land crops, were invariably during the rainy season except in the Ko‘olau or wet districts. Sugar cane and bananas were almost always planted on lo‘i banks (kuauna) so as to ensure a sufficiency of moisture from the seepage or ooze between them.

Each ‘auwai (water courses) had a proper name and was generally called after either the land, or chief of the land that had furnished the most men, or had mainly been instrumental in the inception, planning and carrying out the work.

All ‘auwai tapping the main stream were done under the authority of the Konohiki of an ahupua‘a, ‘ili or ku. In some instances, the Konohiki of two or three independent lands united in the work of ‘auwai making.

‘Auwai were generally dug from makai (seaward or below) upwards. The different ahupua‘a, ‘ili or ku taking part in the work furnished men according to the number of cultivators on each land.

The dams were always a low loose wall of stones with a few clods here and there, high enough to raise water sufficiently to flow into the ‘auwai. No ‘auwai was permitted to take more water than continued to flow in the stream below the dam.

The general distribution of the quantity of water each independent land was entitled to was in proportion to the quota of hands furnished by each land, but subject to regulations as to distance from source of supply. (There was no limit to the number of laborers any land might furnish.)

The konohiki of the land controlling the most water rights in a given ‘auwai was invariably its luna. He controlled and gave the proportion of water to each mo‘o‘āina (kuleana) or single holding of the common people cultivating on that land.

In ancient times the holders of a water right were required whenever it became their turn in the water rotation or division to go up with the luna wai (superintendent) to the water head or dam to see that it was in proper condition …

… follow down the ‘auwai from there, removing all obstructions which may have fallen in or had been carried down by the water during the night from the kahawai or mountain stream …

… shut off all branch ‘auwai or runlets from the main ‘auwai, except those conducting water to lo‘i entitled to water at the same time, the luna wai – who should be with him during all this time – making the necessary division by means of a clod, stone or both; the water holder continuing to follow the water until it entered his lo‘i and the koele in his charge.

Bordering on the upper portions of most ‘auwai were small lo‘i limited in size and number, generally on a hillside, or on the borders of a gulch.

These lo‘i were generally awarded kulu or drops; that is, they were entitled to continual driblets of water, and no one having a water share may turn the water entirely away from them unless, in times of scarcity, it should be seen that these lo‘i were full to overflowing.

It was a strictly enforced custom, that should any water right holder neglect to go, or furnish a substitute at the periodical ‘auwai cleanings, repairs of dam, etc., water would be withheld from the land of the absentee until such time as he should see fit to resume work for the benefit of what might be termed the shareholders of that ‘auwai .

It sometimes occurred that a land originally entitled only to a small portion of water, but afterwards held or presided over by an industrious, energetic man; whose popularity attracted many to live under him, would be accorded an increased supply in consequence of his promptly furnishing as many or more hands than some land entitled to more water than his.

After this had continued some time, the water-luna would recognized the justice of an increased supply for his land, and would either take a portion of water from any land failing in its due quota of hands, or as was more frequently done, simply adding a day, night, or both to the rotation; letting his land have the added time.

Anyone in the olden times caught breaking a dam built in accordance with the Hawaiian’s idea of justice and equity, would be slain by the share holders of that dam, and his body put in the breach he had made, as a temporary stopgap, thus serving as a warning to others who might be inclined to act similarly.

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Taro patches near Lihue, Kauai-Mitchell-BishopMuseum-ca. 1886.

Lo‘i at Honokōhau, Maui, Huli planted in lines-(BishopMuseum)-1940

Waipio_Valley-Taro_Loi-(DMYoung)

Waikane_Loi_Kalo-BM-1940

Taro Lo’i Agriculture in Mānoa Valley-(UH_Heritage)-ca_1890

Punaluu_Oahu-Loi_Kalo-BM-1924

Loi-aep-his151

Kakaako-Prior to the 20th century Ward Village was primarily fish ponds, salt pans and taro lo‘i-(avisionforward)

Heeia Taro – 1930

Hawaiians_in_the_field,_photograph_by_Frederick_George_Eyton-Walker,_c._1890

Keanae-taro-(WC_Forest & Kim Starr)

Punaluu auwai and loi-KSBE

One of the largest taro growing areas in the Hawaiian Islands is the Lower Hanalei Valley-(WC)

September 25, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kōloa Landing

Hawaiians along the Kōloa shore were the first to see the white man in Hawaiʻi. It was in 1778, along Kauai’s South Shore, that Captain James Cook first traveled, landed and made “contact”, introducing Hawaiʻi to the rest of the world.

Cook named the archipelago the Sandwich Islands in honor of his patron, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich. Cook’s crew first sighted the Hawaiian Islands in the dawn hours of January 18, 1778.

His two ships, the HMS Resolution and the HMS Discovery, were kept at bay by the weather until the next day when they approached Kauai’s southeast coast.

On the afternoon of January 19, native Hawaiians in canoes paddled out to meet Cook’s ships, and so began Hawai‘i’s contact with Westerners. The first Hawaiians to greet Cook were from the Kōloa shore.

The Hawaiians traded fish and sweet potatoes for pieces of iron and brass that were lowered down from Cook’s ships to the Hawaiians’ canoes. Cook continued to sail along the coast searching for a suitable anchorage.

His two ships remained offshore, but a few Hawaiians were allowed to come on board on the morning of January 20, before Cook continued on in search of a safe harbor.

As they stepped ashore for the first time, Cook and his men were greeted by hundreds of Hawaiians who offered gifts of pua‘a (pigs), and mai‘a (bananas) and kapa (tapa) barkcloth.

Cook went ashore at Waimea three times the next day, walking inland to where he saw Hawaiian hale (houses), heiau (sacred places of worship), and agricultural sites.

At the time, the region was thriving with many thatched homes as well as lo‘i kalo (taro patches) and various other food crops such as niu (coconuts) and ‘ulu (breadfruit).

After trading for provisions, gathering water and reading for sail, Cook left the island and continued his search of the “Northwest Passage,” an elusive (because it was non‐existent) route from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

From the time of contact, until the end of the century, ships called at Waimea nearly every year for water and provisions. For a time, it was the favored port of call on the island.

However, captains learned that the exposed anchorage at Waimea was dangerous with ‘kona’ winds came up ((south‐westerly, versus the typical north‐easterly tradewinds,) threatening to ground the moored ships.

Ultimately, it was this occasional weather pattern that caused the decline of Waimea as the favored port on the Island of Kauai and the rise of Kōloa Landing to take its place.

Goods and people were transferred by hand and small boat to ships in Hanakaʻape Bay. The cove is at the mouth of the Waikomo (entering water) Stream on Hanakaʻape (headstrong) Bay.

Between about 1810 and 1820, the major item of Hawaiian trade was sandalwood. King Kaumualiʻi held the sandalwood monopoly on Kauai and Niʻihau, Kōloa Landing served as a prominent port of export. Kamehameha I held the monopoly for the rest of the island chain.

Ships calling to Kōloa Landing steadily increased and by 1830 it became widely recognized as the major port on the island. Ships had the ability to maneuver in and out of the anchorage, whatever the wind direction.

Whalers, seeking water and food supplies, called at Kōloa Landing, the Island’s foremost port. Kōloa was a center for agriculture and, as such, became the center of activity for Kauai. The whaling industry was the mainstay of the islands’ economy for about 40 years.

Likewise, Kōloa Landing was situated near a source of good water, near crops grown in the Kōloa field system, close to salt beds and had an abundance of firewood and beef from mauka regions.

In the mid-1800s, Kōloa Landing was the third largest whaling port in all of Hawai‘i (behind Honolulu and Lāhainā) and the only port of entry for foreign goods.

The first commercially‐viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kauai. On July 29, 1835, Ladd & Company obtained a 50‐year lease on nearly 1,000‐acres of land and established a plantation and mill site in Kōloa.

It was to change the face of Kauai (and Hawai‘i) forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of mono-cropping that lasted for over a century. A tribute to this venture is found at the Kōloa Sugar Memorial in Old Kōloa Town,

Traveling salesmen, also known as drummers (‘drumming up business,’) who worked for large mercantile agencies on O‘ahu would arrive at Kōloa Landing after an often rugged ocean trip by steamer and rowboat.

The would take their samples to each plantation camp store and sometimes even fan out from house to house in outlying communities.

Kōloa Landing was the trans‐shipment point from which ships were off‐loaded with mercantile goods and livestock for Kauai, and where trade‐goods, fresh produce and livestock were loaded on ships from Kauai. It was also linked to Kōloa Town, two miles inland, by the purveyor’s cart path (Hapa Road.)

Shipping in and out of Koloa Landing increased until 1912 (up to 60 ships a year anchored there to stock provisions and take on passengers.) However, better facilities became available at Nāwiliwili and Port Allen.

The landing left and Hanakaʻape Bay is now a popular dive site, especially for SCUBA instruction. Further out is an offshore reef that provides several surf breaks that are quite popular with local surfers.

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Hanakaape_Bay-Koloa_Landing-Ships-1898

Koloa-Landing-1880

Hanakaape_Bay-Koloa_Landing-GoogleEarth

Hanakaape_Bay-Koloa_Landing

Koloa Landing-akamaidivers-com

Koloa_Landing_and_Makahuena_Point-USGS-1926-portion

September 24, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Settlement & Agricultural Development

Folks describe different ‘phases’ or ‘periods’ of human settlement and agricultural development in the Islands over time. Different people use different terms for each of these (some use varying timeframes, as well,) but they seem to generally fall into Settlement, Development, Expansion and ultimately Post-Contact.

Settlement – AD 1000-1400

It is believed that initial Polynesian discovery and settlement of the Hawaiian Islands occurred between approximately AD 1000 and 1200. (Kirch) This effectively started the ‘Settlement’ phase.

The rich valley bottoms which later they would clear, terrace, and irrigate for wet-taro cultivation, were in their pristine state, dense jungle, probably covered mostly with the hau shrub which, where it runs wild, produces a dense, tight jungle. For this jungle the first settlers had no use.

What taro tops they had, they planted along the banks of the streams, as taro is still planted along the banks of irrigation and drainage ditches. If they had sweet-potato shoots, these were planted in sandy soil near their huts.

It is more likely, however, that the first settlers had little or nothing to plant. The plants and more settlers were probably brought by canoes sent back to the homeland.

For generations, the small, slowly growing population clustered around shore sites near streams that supplied them with water. Such sites are best for inshore fishing.

Fishermen and their families living around the bays and the beaches, or at isolated localities along the coast where fishing was practicable, led a life that was materially simpler than that of planters who dwelt on the plains.

The food plants of Hawaiʻi can be divided into three groups: those known as staple foods (the principal starchy foods – kalo (taro,) ʻuala (sweet potato,) ʻulu (breadfruit,) etc;) those of less importance (to add nutrients and variety to the diet;) and those known as famine foods. (Krauss)

With such a small (but growing) population based on the family unit, society was not so complicated that it needed chiefs to govern or oversee the general population.

Kamakau states that there were no chiefs in the earliest period of settlement but that they came “several hundred years afterward … when men became numerous.”

Development – AD 1400-1650

As the ancient Hawaiian population grew, land use and resource management also evolved. The traditional land use in the Hawaiian Islands evolved from shifting cultivation into a stable form of agriculture.

Stabilization required a new form of land use and eventually the ahupua‘a form of land management was instituted (what we generally refer to as watersheds, today.) Ahupuaʻa served as a means of managing people.

In addition, this centralization of government allowed for development and maintenance of large projects, such as irrigation systems, large taro loʻi, large fish ponds, heiau and trails.

To feed more people, farming became more developed and intensified. Only in Hawaiʻi was there such an intensive effort to utilize practically every body of water, from seashore to upland forests, as a source of food, for either agriculture or aquaculture.

Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters, to raise fish for their communities and families. It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth century.

The ancient Hawaiian fishpond is a sophisticated land and ocean resource management technique. Utilizing raw materials such as rocks, corals, vines and woods, the Hawaiians created great walls (kuapā) and gates (mākāhā) for these fishponds. (Kelly)

Another technological invention by Hawaiian Polynesians was the development of their extended stone-faced, terraced pondfields (lo‘i) and their accompanying irrigation systems (‘auwai) for the intensive cultivation of wetland taro (kalo.)

The terraces were irrigated with water brought in ditches from springs and streams high in the valleys, allowing extensive areas of the valleys to be cultivated. The irrigation ditches and pondfields were engineered to allow the cool water to circulate among the taro plants and from terrace to terrace, avoiding stagnation and overheating by the sun, which would rot the taro tubers.

An acre of irrigated lo‘I kalo produced as much as five times the amount of taro as an acre of dryland cultivation. Over a period of several years, irrigated pondfields could be as much as 10 or 15 times more productive than unirrigated taro gardens, as dryland gardens need to lie fallow for greater lengths of time thin irrigated gardens. (Kelly)

There was systematic cultivation of dryland crops in their appropriate vegetation zones as exemplified by the Field Systems (notable systems are seen in Kona, Kohala, Kaupō, Kalaupapa and Ka‘ū.) (Kelly)

This was a period of tremendous significance in Hawaiian pre-contact history since, during this time, (1) the population underwent a geometric rate of increase; (2) virtually all habitable and arable lands were occupied and territorially claimed; (3) the territorial pattern of chiefdom (moku) and subchiefdom units (ahupua‘a) appears to have been established …

… and (4) toward the end of this period the Hawaiian sociopolitical system was transformed from a simple, ancestral Polynesian chiefdom to a highly stratified society with virtual class differentiation between chiefs and commoners. (Kirch)

Expansion – AD 1650-Contact (1778)

A population peak (usually estimated at several hundred thousand) was reached around 1650 AD, more than 100 years before contact with Europeans.

It was at this population peak, or shortly before, that Hawaiians began to inhabit less favorable coastline areas and barren zones between the coast and upland agricultural sites and to develop extensive dryland agricultural systems in marginal regions. (Cuddihy)

Large-scale irrigation works and permanent field systems were developed during the expansion period. Settlements were intruding into increasingly marginal environments, including the interiors of leeward valleys and the higher elevation slopes. Population densities in the fertile windward valleys increased, although densities in tablelands and elsewhere were much lower.

Cultivation was characterized by a variety of non-irrigated root and tree crops grown for subsistence, each farmer having gardens in one or more vegetation zones. Each crop was cultivated in the zone in which it grew best.

Reverend William Ellis described the area behind Kailua town in Kona above the breadfruit and mountain apple trees as, “The path now lay through a beautiful part of the country, quite a garden compared with that through which they had passed on first leaving the town.”

“It was generally divided into small fields, about fifteen rods square fenced with low stone walls, built with fragments of lava gathered from the surface of the enclosures. These fields were planted with bananas, sweet potatoes, mountain taro, paper mulberry plants, melons, and sugar-cane, which flourished luxuriantly in every direction.”

There was extensive development of at least the mauka portion of the kula sub-zone, for sweet potatoes, wauke and probably also gourds. This development was accompanied rarely by permanent habitation and more often by temporary and seasonal habitation along the kula gardens.

Animal enclosures, probably for pigs, may date to this phase. The upland zones were under complete development by this time. Suitable caves were modified for refuge during times of warfare or social conflict. Caves located in the midst of garden features were intensively used for temporary shelter and work spaces. (Terry)

Post Contact – After 1778

At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four chiefdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Island rulers, Aliʻi or Mōʻī, typically ascended to power through familial succession and warfare. In those wars, Hawaiians were killing Hawaiians; sometimes the rivalries pitted members of the same family against each other.

“It is supposed that some six thousand of the followers of this chieftain (Kamehameha,) and twice that number of his opposers, fell in battle during his career, and by famine and distress occasioned by his wars and devastations from 1780 to 1796.” (Bingham)

In addition to deaths in wars, epidemics of infections added to the decline in Hawaiʻi’s population from approximately 300,000 at the time of Captain Cook’s arrival in 1778 to 135,000 in 1820 and 53,900 in 1876.

Vancouver was appalled by the impoverished circumstances of the people and the barren and uncultivated appearance of their lands. “The deplorable condition to which they had been reduced by an eleven years war” and the advent of “the half famished trading vessels” convinced him that he should pursue his peace negotiations for “the general happiness, of the inhabitants of all the islands.” (Vancouver, Voyage 2)

“By this time nearly a generation of the race had passed away, subsequently to their discovery by Cook. How much of their strength had been exhausted by wars and the support of armies, and how much by new and terrible diseases, it is not easy to estimate. The population was greatly diminished, and the residue unimproved in morals.” (Bingham)

The cultivation of kula lands gradually decreased in extent and intensity, nevertheless remaining important to a decreasing population. Some kula lands were being converted to grazing beginning in the 1840s.

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co., was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i. On July 29, 1835, Ladd & Company obtained a 50-year lease on nearly 1,000-acres of land and established a plantation and mill site in Kōloa.

At the industry’s peak in the 1930s, Hawaii’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar. That plummeted to 492,000 tons in 1995.

Although sugar dominated the Hawaiian economy, there was also great demand at the time for fresh Hawaiian pineapples, and later canned pineapple. By 1931, pineapple production exceeded 12 million cases as a result of both expansion and improvements in productivity; production of canned pineapple peaked in 1957.

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c. 1826 lithograph, William Ellis C., Big Island. Waipio Valley, Ahupua’a.

Fish_Ponds_at_Honoruru,_Oahu,_by_John_Murray,_after_Robert_Dampier-(WC)-1836

P-03-View of Country back of Kailua

Native_Hawaiian_man_pounding_taro_into_poi_with_two_children_by_his_sides-(WC)-c._1890s

Oahu-Kahaluu-kalo-terrace-wall-(WC)

Water from the ‘auwai going back to the kahawai-(KSBE)

Wailau-terraces_walls (Windy K McElroy)

Ruins of Ancient Loi Kalo (Taro Pond Fields in Lanai)-(lanaichc-org)-1912

Kona_Field_System-GoogleEarth

Kohala Field System-photo-Vitousek

Interior fish pond Waikiki Oahu-1905

Honolulu_Harbor_to_Diamond_Head-Wall-Reg1690 (1893)

Hawaii_Island_Fishpond_Gate-(WC)

Fishpond_in_east_Molokai-(WC)

September 22, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hula ‘Auana

The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco in 1915 to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, as well as support San Francisco’s recovery from the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire.

The Exposition looked to the future for innovation. Things we take for granted today – cars, airplanes, telephones, and movies – were in their infancy and were shown off at the fair, and some well-known technological luminaries were involved in the fair.

The San Francisco Exposition was also the launching site for broader awareness of hula ‘auana, contemporary hula – it was featured in the Hawaii exhibits.

There, ‘Princess Lei Lokelani’ performed traditional foot movements – ku‘i and ‘uwehe – to modern ‘ukulele and steel guitar songs – this also launched the hapa-haole (half “foreign”) hula phenomenon into broader markets. (Wianecki)

Traditional Hawaiian music was based upon mele oli and mele hula as performed in the pre-Western-contact era. Mele oli means plain chanting, while mele hula signifies chanting accompanied by hula.

There are many different types of hula. Today, hula has been divided into two main categories; hula ‘auana and hula kahiko, also known as modern hula and ancient hula.

Within the ancient hula, or hula kahiko, there are several different type; to begin with, the three basic ancient dances hula pahu, hula ku‘i and hula ‘āla‘apapa provide the starting point for the kahiko dances we see today.

The hula pahu dances were, originally a part of heiau, or temple, rituals and were danced in honor of “the akua – Kāne, Kanaloa, Kū and Lono – the ‘state gods’, who had been recognized by all Hawaiians and were intimately involved in Polynesian cosmology and the ordering of Hawaiian society”. (Kaepple)

After the overthrow of the Hawaiian religious system in 1819, by the Hawaiians themselves, the rituals were transferred to honor ‘aumākua (deified ancestors) who had not been overthrown, such as Pele, Laka and Kapo.

The hula pahu dances are defined by a certain rhythmic pattern and by certain chants. They are danced to the beats of the pahu drum.

The movements of the hula pahu originally objectified or embodied the work of kahuna (priests or spiritual mentors) and was according to legend, brought to Hawai‘i, along with the pahu drum, from Tahiti by La‘amaikahiki.

The hula ku‘i originated in the Kalākaua era, and had its first public appearance during the coronation ceremonies of King Kalākaua in 1883. The hula ku‘i is accompanied by mele, and usually instruments like the guitar or the ‘ukulele. The dance style is softer than the hula pahu, yet not as soft as the modern ‘auana

The hula ‘āla‘apapa is an ancient hula that is accompanied by chant, and danced to the rhythm of the double gourd ipu, ipu heke, with “vigorous and bombastic” movements. The dance is performed in a standing position, and the ho‘opa‘a is responsible for both the rhythm and the chanting.

The ‘ōlapa/ku‘i dances and the ‘āla‘apapa dances are very much alike to the untrained eye, but differences lie in the movement and rhythmic patterns and the flow of the chants.

Mele hula kuʻi – chant and dance style with western influences – developed in the late-19th and early 20th centuries from mele hula. These three forms served as the foundations of authentic Hawaiian music. (Torgersen)

At the corner of what is now Baker Street and Marina Boulevard in San Francisco’s Marina District was where the Hawaiian Pavilion stood during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

These Hawaiian shows had the highest attendance at the entire fair and launched a Hawaiian cultural craze that influenced everything from American music, to movies, to fashion. (Mushet)

“The hugely popular Hawaii pavilion … showcased Hawaiian music and hula dancing, and was the unofficial launching pad for ukulele-mania.” Hapa-haole songs were featured in the Hawaii exhibits.

The ‘Princess’ was 15-year old Elizabeth Jonia Leilokelani Shaw; she and her family were a hit at the Exposition – Shaw had moved from the Islands to Portland with her family. Her first professional performance was at the exposition; she later danced contemporary hula in vaudeville.

Hula ‘auana are always accompanied by mele, and have soft and floating movements. The ‘auana is also inspired by the hula of the 20th century up until the late 1960s, including the hapa haole styled hula. (Torgersen)

The costumes of the hula ‘auana are different from the kahiko costumes, which usually involve a pā‘ū (hula skirt) and a top to match the pā‘ū for female dancers, and a malo (loincloth) for the male dancers, as well as anklets, wristlets and a headpiece made from traditional hula plants and flowers.

The ‘auana costumes often involve mu‘umu‘u (long dress or gown) for women and black pants, a shirt and sash for the men. The women often have large headpieces made from flowers and greens and may wear shoes as part of the costume.

The kahiko dances must always be danced barefoot, and the dancer is not allowed any jewelry or excessive makeup. (Torgersen)

By 1916, there were hundreds of Hapa Haole tunes written. That same year, reportedly more Hawaiian records were sold on the mainland than any other type of music. And they came in all the popular styles of the day: in ragtime, blues, jazz, foxtrot and waltz tempos, as “shimmy” dances and–even–in traditional hula tempos, but jazzed up a bit.

In 1935, a radio program began, broadcasting live from the Banyan Court of the Moana Hotel on the beach at Waikīkī, and radios nationwide tuned in to hear “Hawaii Calls.” Not only did nearly every island entertainer cut his or her teeth on the program, many went on to become well known.

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