General | Page 180 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 28, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Artesian Way

Actually, a lot of streets fit into the telling of this story: Marques Street, Evelyn Lane, Oliver Street, and Artesian Way. They are all associated with Auguste and Evelyn Oliver Marques and, the drilling of the first artesian well in Makiki, Honolulu.

A plaque marks the spot – I’ve been by it too many times to count, and never noticed it – and as the plaque notes, “This Means the Promise of Beauty and Fertility For Thousands of Acres.”

Most of the early water wells were drilled in and around Honolulu. It was James Campbell who furnished the first conclusive demonstration of the practicability of artesian wells in Hawaii, when on the summer of 1879, on the plain near his ranch house in Ewa, a good flow of water was obtained. (Kuykendall)

Success of this experiment created intense interest and a group of men in Honolulu brought over from California another well-driller, AD Pierce, with better equipment, and in the spring of 1880 a flowing well was completed (April 28) on the land of Auguste Marques near Punahou.

Subsequently, many other wells were drilled, and it became evident that a large supply of water could be obtained by this method. Early in the 1880s, the McCandless brothers (James S., John A., and Lincoln L.) began their long career as artesian well drillers in the islands. (Kuykendall)

“The first artesian well bored in Honolulu was marked in appropriate ceremonies yesterday on the premises of the Marques home on Wilder avenue near Metcalf street.”

“The first shaft tapping Honolulu’s subterranean water supply was marked with a bronze plaque which reads, “Site of Honolulu’s Pioneer Artesian Well, brought in on April 28, 1880 for Dr. Augustus Marques. ‘This means the promise of beauty and fertility for thousands of acres’ —King Kalakaua. Sealed August, 1938—Board of Water Supply.” (Nippu Jiji, June 21, 1939)

Doctor Marques lived much of his Hawaiian life at 1928 Wilder Avenue (now the site of a small apartment building). He originally owned about 30 acres of land, most on the slope below Vancouver Place.

Immediately Ewa side of it is Punahou School. The eventual tract (of about 30 acres, one supposes) was complete by 1880, at a cost of perhaps $10,000.

The area was called ‘Marquesville.’ He “was instrumental in bringing a colony of Portuguese to Honolulu … and sold lots on long term credit to encourage them to become home owners.” (Bouslog) Later, there was also a Catholic Church, with services in English and Portuguese.

“When asked to what nationality he belongs, Dr. A. Marques replies that he Is a true cosmopolitan”. (Hawaiian Star, March 9, 1899) Marques Auguste Jean Baptiste Marques was born in Toulon, France, on November 17, 1841.

His father was French and Spanish and was a general in the French Army. His mother, of English an Scotch descent, was the daughter of General Cooke of the British Army. Auguste’s boyhood was spent in Morocco, Algiers and the Sahara.

His early ambition was to become a doctor, but his mother wanted him to become a scientist. As a compromise, he acquired a medical and scientific education but agreed not to take a diploma or to practice medicine.

After four years of medical training, he was valedictorian of his class at the University of Paris, but, true to his agreement, never accepted his diploma. For some years following his graduation he was connected with the Bureau of Agriculture in Paris.

Shortly after his mother’s death in 1875, Dr. Marques started on a trip around the world. Arriving in Honolulu Christmas Eve of 1878, he decided to stay over between steamers, and so liked Hawaii that he cancelled his passage and from then on made his home in Honolulu and later became a naturalized citizen.

From 1890 to 1891 Dr. Marques served in the Hawaiian legislature. In 1893 he organized the Theosophical Society in Honolulu and six years later went to Australia to serve as General Secretary of the Society for that country.

From Australia he was sent to India as a delegate to the Theosophical Society convention, representing both Australia and the United States. In 1900 he returned to Honolulu.

On June 7, 1900, Dr. Marques married Evelyn M. Oliver, manager of the Woman’s Exchange in Honolulu. (Mamiya Medical Heritage Center)

Born in Canada in 1863, Evelyn Oliver had come to Hawai’i from Canada in 1889 as a publisher’s representative. She soon became interested in providing a sales outlet and a source of income, for Hawaiian women’s handicrafts.

“This institution served a double purpose, it preserved the old arts and it enabled native women to profitably market their products.” In 1899, her store was at 215 Merchant Street, which was also her residence.

The 1905-6 Directory describes her business as “South Seas Curios, hats and calabashes.” Women of Hawaii thought her noteworthy because of her joining the struggle for women’s suffrage, as “an active worker in the Women’s League of Voters of Hawaii…” (Bouslog)

As with her husband, Mrs. Marques is also remembered by a street name or two. Across from their home on Wilder Avenue is Artesian Street, commemorating the “pioneer artesian well.” East of Artesian is Evelyn Way, then Oliver Lane.

Both first appear in the City Directory of 1914. And so for her last 25 years she lived across from street signs displaying her maiden names. (Bouslog)

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109-Honolulu Sanford Fire Maps-1914-Waikiki-portion-portion

Auguste-Jean-Baptiste-Marques

April 23, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lāhainā Banyan Tree

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived (1820,) Kamehameha I had died (1819) and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished, through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho, his son,) with encouragement by his father’s wives, Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother.)) Keōpūolani later decided to move to Maui.

A few years later the Second Company arrived; “On the 26th of May (1823) we heard that the barge (Cleopatra’s Barge, or “Haʻaheo o Hawaiʻi,” Pride of Hawaiʻi) was about to sail for Lahaina, with the old queen (Keōpūolani) and princess (Nāhiʻenaʻena;) and that the queen was desirous to have missionaries to accompany her”.

“A meeting was called to consult whether it was expedient to establish a mission at Lahaina. The mission was determined on, and Mr S (Stewart) was appointed to go: he chose Mr R (Richards) for his companion … On the 28th we embarked on the mighty ocean again, which we had left so lately.” (Betsey Stockton Journal)

Keōpūolani is said to have been the first convert of the missionaries in the Islands, receiving baptism from Rev. William Ellis in Lāhainā on September 16, 1823. Keōpūolani was spoken of “with admiration on account of her amiable temper and mild behavior”. (William Richards) She was ill and died shortly after her baptism.

The tenth ABCFM Company arrived in the Islands on September 24, 1842 on the Sarah Abagail from Boston. On board were Rev George Berkeley Rowell (1815-1884) and wife Malvina Jerusha Chapin (1816-1901) and Physician James William Smith (1810–1887) and wife Melicent Knapp Smith (1816–1891.) They were assigned to the station on Kauai.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1810 to a farm family, James William Smith became a school teacher at 17, and had a religious conversion at 19. He studied religion for about 3-years until he became ill in 1834 and was unable to complete his studies to enter the ministry.

Their son, William Owen Smith, born at Kōloa, Kauai, was educated at Rev David Dole’s school at Kōloa, later attending Punahou School in Honolulu; Smith left school to go to work on a sugar plantation for three years to learn the sugar industry, working in the boiling house in winter and in the fields in summer.

Smith was Sheriff of Kauai for two years and Maui for two years. He later became a lawyer and state legislator.

On April 24, 1873, while serving as Sheriff on Maui, WO Smith planted Lāhainā’s Indian Banyan to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission in Lāhainā.

After settling in, the tree slowly sent branches outward from its trunk. From the branches, a series of aerial roots descended towards the earth. Some of them touched the ground and dug in, growing larger until eventually turning into trunks themselves.

Over the years, Lahaina residents encouraged the symmetrical growth of the tree by hanging large glass jars filled with water on the aerial roots that they wanted to grow into a trunk. In time, what was once a small sapling matured into a monumental behemoth.

It now stands over 60 feet high, has 16 major trunks in addition to the massive original and shades nearly two-thirds of an acre. Maui County Arborist Committee carefully maintains the health and shape of this majestic tree.

It is the largest banyan tree in the entire United States. In recent times, the courthouse square was renamed ‘Banyan Tree Park’ in its honor. Lāhainā Restoration Foundation takes care of the park grounds. (Lāhainā Restoration Foundation)

An interesting side note to Queen Lili‘uokalani’s legal matters relate to the role and relationship she had with WO Smith.

During the revolutionary period, Smith was one of the thirteen members of the Committee of Safety that overthrew the rule of Queen Liliʻuokalani (January 17, 1893) and established the Provisional Government.

He then served on the executive council of the Provisional Government and was sent to Washington DC when the proposed Organic Act for the Government of Hawaiʻi was pending before Congress.

When not filling public office, Mr. Smith had been engaged in private law practice and was affiliated with various law firms during his long career.

Smith and his firm wrote the will for Princess Pauahi Bishop that created the Bishop Estate. As a result of this, Pauahi recommended to Queen Liliʻuokalani that he write her will for the Liliʻuokalani Trust (which he did.)

On the November 30, 1915, Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole, on his own behalf filed a bill in equity averring mental weakness on the part of Queen Lili‘uokalani. (Hawaii Supreme Court)

WO Smith represented the Queen in the case. The case made it to the Hawai‘i Supreme Court; the Supreme court held that the presumption of competency prevailed in favor of the Queen.

The Supreme court also found, “We think it is clear, therefore, that Kalaniana‘ole, as sole complainant, may not maintain the suit since he has no interest in the subject-matter.” The queen won the case.

Speaking of his relationship with the Queen, Smith said, “One of the gratifying experiences of my life was that after the trying period which led up to the overthrow of the monarchy and the withdrawal of Queen Liliʻuokalani, the Queen sent for me to prepare a will and deed of trust of her property and appointed me one of her trustees”. (Nellist)

Smith was also a trustee of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate from 1884-1886 and 1897-1929, the Lunalilo Estate, the Alexander Young Estate and the Children’s Hospital.

The land that Kūhiō made claim to helped to form the Lili‘uokalani Trust, “a private operating foundation founded in 1909, for the benefit of orphan and destitute children with preference given to Native Hawaiian children.”

“A diversified portfolio of real estate, marketable securities and private investments provides the resources to support mission-related programs and activities.” (Lili‘uokalani Trust)

Author Evelyn Cook noted in a newspaper interview related to the book she wrote about WO Smith’s father, ‘100 Years of Healing: The Legacy of a Kauai Missionary Doctor’, “Today, the prince is worshipped, and WO Smith is vilified. But who is the hero and villain? People don’t know their own history.” (Command)

Click HERE for more Information on the Lāhainā Banyan Tree.

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Banyan Tree located in courthouse square in the center of Lahaina

Banyan_Tree,_Courtyard,_Lahaina,_Maui,_photograph_by_Brother_Bertram

The only image of Cleopatra’s Barge in Hawaii – here at Lahaina, Maui

Keopuolani

James William Smith

Mrs (Melicent Knapp) Smith

Banyan-Tree-Lahaina

Banyan_Tree-walkway

Banyan_Tree-trunk

Banyan_Tree_Park_(8625010921)

Banyan_Plaque

Banyan_Tree

William_Owen_Smith

Bernice_Pauahi_Bishop,_San_Francisco,_1875

Liliuokalani_in_1917

April 21, 2018 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Cyclorama

On May 1, 1893, nearly five months after the overthrow of the Hawaiian constitutional monarchy, the Chicago World’s Fair opened its doors. This fair was a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World.

At the fair, a road called the Midway Plaisance showcased different ethnic villages and performances, including Hawai‘i’s.

The Midway Plaisance of the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition packed amusements along a mile-long strip and segregated them from the main exposition or the ‘White City’. (Imada)

The Hawaiian exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 was organized by settler Hawaiians who were rallying for American annexation and trying to encourage tourism and more white settlement in the Islands. (Kamehiro)

“Between the Chinese Theatre and the Ferris Wheel stood the cyclorama (a large pictorial representation encircling the spectator and often having real objects as a foreground) of the greatest active volcano in the northern hemisphere.”

“In front of the pavilion was a heroic statue of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire, made by Mrs (Ellen Rankin) Copp, the sculptor, and under the canopy a choir of Kanak musicians sang to the public, evoking much applause.”

“The crater of the volcano is 800 feet deep and 2 miles across. It is a lake of bubbling and thunderous lava set in the side of Mona Loa, a mountain 15,000 feet high. The station for the spectator of the picture was a heap of lava which had exuded and solidified in the center of the crater.”

“A priest climbed the cliffs that rimmed the scene and chanted an invocation to Pele, and his form added to the realism of the effects. The mountain peak and the Pacific Ocean, the baleful fires of the never slumbering volcano, the mists and lava floods, all conspired to make a great picture.” (The Inter Ocean, Chicago, January 7, 1894)

Circling the walls within are some 22,000 square feet or nearly half an acre of canvas, whereon is depicted ‘the inferno of the Pacific,’ the largest volcano on the face of the earth.

While not without merit, it does not compare with the other as a panoramic painting, the effect being largely produced by electric lights, pyrotechnics, and other mechanical contrivances.

The point of observation is in the very heart of the crater, and not on its brow where thousands of travellers have stood. Gazing upward and around, the spectator is encompassed with a hissing, bubbling sea of lava, with tongues of flame and clouds of steam rising from fathomless pits to overhanging crags and masses of rock.

All this is expressed with studied but not with artistic realism, fragments of rock being blended with painted cliffs on which are dummies and painted figures, presumably intended for tourists, while flashlights in various colors, with detonation of bombs and crackers, imitate in showman fashion the awful grandeur of an eruption. (Chicagology)

Such was Hawai‘i’s participation in the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.

The volcano concession also advertised the first hula troupe to perform at a world fair, accentuating the shift in the character of Native Hawaiian displays in international exhibitions from sovereign, historically-situated, and modern self-presentation to feminized, exotic, tourist curiosity.

Jennie Wilson, whose mother is a native Hawaiian, and an unknown companion, performing at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago at the Midway Plaisance in an exhibit called the” South Seas Islanders.”

This was the first time the hula was performed in the mainland of the United States. She and her group inadvertently contributed to the bad reputation of the hula with the ‘come-on’ song they were required to sing to urge audiences to see the ‘naughty hula.’ (Chicagology)

Besides the Hawai‘i cyclorama, there were five other rotunda panoramas represented at World Columbian Exposition: Gettysburg (Philippoteaux studio), Jerusalem On The Day Of The Crucifixion (Reed & Gross), Chicago Fire panorama (Reed & Gross), Bernese Oberland,(import from Switzerland), and Battle Of Chattanooga (Eugen Bracht studio, Berlin).

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Kilauea cyclorama on the Midway Plaisance at the World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago-1893

Kilauea cyclorama on the Midway Plaisance at the World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, 1893

Jennie Wilson and companion hula at Midway Plaisance at the World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, 1893

World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, Map-1893

World’s Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, Map 1893

Chicago-1893

April 20, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hope

“(T)he maritime fur trade on the Northwest Coast of America had its origin in the accidental discovery by Captain Cook’s sailors that the furs which they had obtained at Nootka in exchange for the veriest trifles were of great value in the eyes of the Chinese. Naturally the earliest of these traders came from India and China.”

“In September of (1788) appeared at Nootka a new flag – that of the United States of America. This first American venture consisted of the Columbia and the Washington, commanded by captains Gray and Kendrick.”

“After about a year spent on the coast the Columbia sailed for China with the furs collected by both vessels, and thence to her home port, Boston, where she arrived August 10, 1790.”

“Though the voyage had proved a great disappointment, financially, yet other enterprising Boston merchants determined to essay another venture. The vessel they selected was the Hope, a brigantine of seventy tons and slightly built.”

“In command they placed Joseph Ingraham, who had been mate of the Columbia. This move angered the owners of that vessel, who seemed to think that as they had introduced Ingraham to the fur trade they had some vested right in his services.”

“The Hope sailed from Boston September 16, 1790. … On January 4, 1791 the Falkland Islands were sighted just west of Falkland Strait.”

“‘Remaining very long at sea is often of disheartening seamen and thereby bringing on sickness, only the sight of land, even if no refreshments are procured it, has often a wonderful effect; it awakens them from lethargy occasioned by the sameness of viewing nothing and water’.” (Ingraham)

“Three months after his departure from the Falkland Islands Ingraham anchored in the Bay of Madre de Dios in the Marquesas. (He then) sailed to the westward.”

“Late that afternoon (April 21, 1791) two islands appeared under his lee. Startled by the discovery them he bore away towards them and soon two others appeared upon the horizon. The next day three more were seen. Feeling confident that these we no part of the Marquesas group and that they had never been seen by Europeans, he named them after Washington and other prominent Americans.”

“But Ingraham was in search of furs, not on a voyage of discovery. He hastened towards the Sandwich Islands. On May 17 only five casks of water remained; early on the morning of the 20th, Ingraham was delighted to see the snow-capped summit of Mauna Loa appear above the western horizon.”

At Owyhee (Hawai‘i) he met Tianna … “Hogs, fowls, potatoes, plantains and sugar cane were obtained as the vessel skirted the shores of Owyhee, Mowee (Maui) and Atooi (Kauai).”

“Finally on June 1 the Hope emerged from the channel between Atooi and Oneehow (Ni‘ihau), and the course was set for the Northwest Coast of America.”

“The anniversary of the Declaration of Independence occurred while the Hope lay in Magee Sound. … ‘I caused a hog of 70 lbs weight to be roasted whole, on which we all dined on shore. I with my officers and seamen drank the President’s and made the forest ring with three cheers; after which every one returned to their several employments as we could not time to sit long after dinner.’” (Ingraham)

“(H)e had left a boar and two the hope that they might increase and be of use to future visitors; and desiring that these animals be not molested until they multiplied.”

“Gray of the Columbia was the first to show the Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands how to cultivate the potato. Thus to the credit of the Americans are the introduction of domestic animals and vegetables in those islands.”

“On the morning of July 7 the fast was cast off and the Hope towed out of the sound, ready to begin trading. … Having obtained about three hundred sea otter skins and completely cleared the village of the least particle of fur, Ingraham sailed on July 19 through Cox Strait or Parry Passage, and shaped his course eastward. …”

“It was now the 15th of August; only a little over a month since he had begun his trading at Cloak Bay; and in that interval Ingraham had collected more than eight hundred and fifty sea otter skins. Each day added a few to his stock …”

“… but all the cloth and clothing were gone; and in the competition with at least three other vessels this would place him at a distinct disadvantage. He therefore decided, instead of wintering on the coast, to sail to China, dispose of his cargo of furs, obtain further supply of trading goods, and return to Queen Charlotte Islands in time for the opening of the next season.”

“The crew were set to work to take out the furs, beat, clean, and dry them, obtain wood and water, and prepare for the voyage across the Pacific. These necessary occupations consumed about a fortnight. The Hope still lay at anchor in the little cove at Cumshewa’s village, visited each day by the natives.”

“The trade went steadily on, and the stream of furs flowed uninterruptedly into her hold. When, at last, the vessel was ready to sail, Ingraham found that he had more than fourteen hundred sea otter skins and upwards of three hundred sables, besides beaver, wolverine, etc.”

“Forty-nine days trade on the northern and eastern side of Queen Charlotte Islands. He attributes his success to the method, first introduced by him, of visiting a village, casting anchor and remaining until no more furs could be secured.”

“In this he is probably right, for the natives naturally preferred to deal in this way, rather than paddle out four or five leagues to a moving vessel, as they must do to trade with the others.”

“The results support this view, for the Columbia, pursuing the old fashion of flitting hither and thither had in about the same time obtained only six hundred skins, and the Hancock between five hundred and six hundred.”

“Just as the Hope was under way a canoe came out and traded twenty skins – the very last they possessed … ‘seeing we were about to leave them, they traded quick.’ He left Queen Charlotte Islands on September 1 for China by way of the Sandwich Islands.”

“On October 6 the island Owyhee (Hawaii) was seen at a distance of twenty leagues. … In four or five days Ingraham, having collected seventy hogs, some fowls, and a great quantity of vegetables, resumed his voyage to China carrying with him three Sandwich Island lads as an addition to his crew. He anchored in Macao Roads November 29, 1791.”

“(However,) that, owing to war between China and Russia, the Chinese, under the mistaken idea that the fur trade was wholly connected with Russian interests, had prohibited all vessels having furs on board from entering Canton, the great Chinese mart.”

“(H)e he had come to China to sell his furs, and sell them he would despite the prohibition. … There was no market; had there been one, it would have been flooded, for the cargoes of the Grace, Hancock, Gustavus, Hope and La Solide, added to those of the Spanish vessels from Manilla amounted to about eleven thousand sea otter skins.”

“After ten days spent in a vain endeavor to get the skins ashore, and in which they narrowly escaped seizure the boat returned. Some two hundred skins were sold to other captains who took the risk of running then ashore.”

“While slowly getting rid of his skins, disposing of a few here and a few there, and smuggling a boat load ashore to every available opportunity Ingraham was also obtaining his trading goods.”

“He purchased a large quantity of broadcloth and began on shore the manufacture of jackets and trousers, but when h attempted to put the cloth and the clothing on the Hope, the mandarins demanded $100 to be paid before they would allow them to leave the shore.”

“He and his friends Coolidge and Rogers agreed to invest the proceeds of their sales in a cargo of tea and to charter a small vessel, the Fairy, to transport it to Boston.”

“He accordingly purchased one thousand eight hundred and sixty chests of tea as his share of the lading, but soon discovered that he had obtained far too much. The tea was brought to Macao to be loaded; only a hundred chests had been put on board when the mandarins again interfered and seized sixty-seven chests.”

“On April 1, 1792 the Hope in company with the Grace for the Northwest Coast of America. Head winds drove them back, and it was not until the 26th that they finally left the Chinese coast.”

The Hope made it back to the northwest coast … “Ingraham was surprised to meet at Nootka the Sandwich Islander, Opie, whom he had brought out from Boston and Owyhee in May 1791. This man who had evidently an attack of the wanderlust had embarked with Vancouver in March 1792.”

“He now wished to return to his home and begged Ingraham to him a passage. This, however, was refused unless Vancouver would discharge him. When Vancouver declined to do so Opie suggested that he would desert and meet the Hope in a canoe outside Nootka, but to this Ingraham would not consent … in any event, the Hope was already overmanned.”

Then, “The season was ended. More than three months had been spent in the vain endeavor to procure a cargo of skins. … On October 12 Ingraham sailed from Nootka for China by way of the Sandwich Islands. His Journal ends here quite abruptly”. (All here from Howay)

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Ingraham Voyage-1Boston 2Cape Vert Islands 3Falkland 4Juan Fernandez 5Marquesas 6Hawaii 7Queen Charlotte-Vancouver 8Macau

April 19, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Asian Influence?

“The influence exerted on ocean currents by the Earth’s rotation was not generally appreciated until 1835, when G. de Coriolis, while studying equations of motion in a rotating frame of reference, discovered what is now called Coriolis force.”

“Coriolis showed how the effects of the Earth’s rotation could be incorporated into the Newtonian equations of motion by adding two additional terms. One, the centrifugal force of the Earth’s rotation and the coriolis force that modifies direction.”

“Asia’s seamen have known the Kuroshio (current) since ancient times. They named it Kuro-shio (which means ‘black stream’ in the Japanese language) because of the deep ultramarine colour of the warm, high salinity water which is found flowing north”.

“The first European chart to show the Kuroshio was Varenius’ “Geographia Generalis” of 1650. Later, expeditions headed by Captains James Cook (1776-80) and Krusenstern (1804) added to western knowledge about the Kuroshio.” (Barkley)

“Between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Kuroshio’s treacherous waters swept numerous Japanese ship and their frightened passengers out across the Pacific, depositing them rudely on the coral reefs of the Hawaiian archipelago.” (Ogawa & Grant)

“Inadvertently, the Kuroshio became a rough-hewn bridge between the civilizations of feudal Japan and the stone-age world of the Hawaiian culture.”

“Across this bridge came not only castaways but the artifacts of Japanese culture, several of which became incorporated into the indigenous lifestyle of the tolerant, friendly native.”

“For example, the Hawaiian game of konane perhaps evolved from the Japanese game of go. The plumbed standard of state which Hawaiian royalty retained, the kahili, was possibly derivative of the Japanese keyari”. (Ogawa & Grant)

“The name ‘Keyari’ is a derivative of the Japanese name for the feathered or haired pike carried in feudal Japan as a symbol of rank (毛槍).” (Schmid)

“Hawaiian native culture, whilst basically Polynesian, included many features not found elsewhere in Polynesia. Such cannot be explained satisfactorily by local evolution, nor extra-Polynesian immigration.”

“Some features appear to be European, but since most suggest an origin in the North Pacific coastal regions, their presence in Hawaii may be due to involuntary or drift voyages”. (Stokes; Journal of the Polynesian Society))

“From a study of many authorities writing of drift-voyages – Stokes quotes from forty-seven – he concludes that the most definite recorded drifts have been from Japan, and of these drifts he gives a list of fifty-three Japanese ships which have drifted, disabled, into the northern Pacific.”

“On most of them survivors were found – in one instance after a drift of seventeen months. At least one ship reached Hawaii, after a drift of ten or eleven months, four people out of nine surviving.”

“These drifts were in historic times, all but eight in the eighteen-hundreds; the eight date between the years 1617 and 1794; and (Stokes) writes: …”

“‘With the definite record of one drift to Hawaii from Japan, and none from other Pacific regions in historic times, it is obvious that many of the castaways mentioned in Hawaiian traditions were Japanese, traces of whose culture should be found’”.

“‘The dates when foreign influence apparently was manifest centre around A.D. 1600. Such may be arrived at by a comparative study of the Aukele legend and the accounts of Liloa, Umi, Keawenui, and Lono – kings reigning between 1550 and 1630, as estimated from the genealogies – a period standing out as replete with stories having the appearance of historical narrative.’”

“‘It also indicates an era of many innovations. If the items then mentioned for the first time were not introductions, the period must at least mark the introduction of some new intellectual element which left its record in contemporary unwritten literature.’”.

“The artifact to which (Stokes) devotes most attention is the kahili of Hawaii, which compares with the keyari of Japan, which two present striking similarities in appearance and function.”

“‘One description will apply to both: a staff or standard with feathers arranged in cylindrical form on the upper part; insignium of rank, preceding the ruler or high noble on the road on ceremonial visits, and requiring the obeissance due to its owner …’”

“‘… feathered portion, unicoloured or banded; shaft generally banded – the colours being brown, black, and white … In Hawaii also was a smaller feathered kahili, used in the house to brush flies from royal personages and high or low chiefs.’”

“‘In form, size, and method of feather attachment, it is similar to the Chinese feather-duster of commerce (unchanged for at least fifty years) of which the present-day Japanese feather-duster is a shortened model.’”

“‘The term kahili is the Polynesian tahiri, ‘to wave, fan,’ etc., and has nothing to do with the shape or material of the implement. The same term is applied to the simple bundle of crude leaf-midribs comprising the native broom.’”

“‘Probably a feather-duster reached Hawaii in a Japanese boat and was used as a fly-brush, and the larger type was evolved and highly dignified through the Japanese recollection of the keyari …’” (Stokes; Journal of the Polynesian Society))

“In his exhaustive comparison, among others, of the tall Hawaiian kahili and Japanese keyari for example, Stokes notes that the tall kahili is first mentioned in published Hawaiian traditions in the generation of King Lonoikamakahiki (c. 1630 A.D.) with no known prototype …”

“… whereas the keyari in Japan is traceable as far back as 1190 A.D. and was in use extending to the Tokugawa Period (1600-1867). In short, Stokes suggests that the arrival of intermittent Japanese drifts to Hawaii and the resulting diffusion of ideas may provide the best explanation for some of these uniquely Hawaiian ‘elaborations’.” (Braden)

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