Hawaii | Page 494 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 7, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Claims to the Crown Lands

Under King Kamehameha III, the most important event in the reformation of the land system in Hawai‘i was the separation of the rights of the King, the Chiefs, the Konohiki (land agents) and makaʻāinana (the native tenants.)

More than 240 of the highest ranking Chiefs and Konohiki in the Kingdom joined Kamehameha III in this task (generally referred to as the Great Māhele.) The first māhele, or division, of lands was signed on January 27, 1848; the last māhele was signed on March 7, 1848.

Each māhele was in effect a quitclaim agreement; in each māhele for lands for the King, the Chief or the Konohiki signed an agreement: “I hereby agree that this division is good. The lands above written are for the King. I have no more rights therein.”

The King retained all of his private lands as his individual property; one third of the remaining land was to be for the Hawaiian Government; one third for the Chiefs and Konohiki; and one third to be set aside for the tenants, the actual possessors and cultivators of the soil.

The high Chiefs and the lesser Konohiki were required to present their claims before the Land Commission to receive awards for the lands. Until an award for these lands was issued by the Land Commission, title to such lands remained with the government.

In the Māhele, of the approximate 10,000 awards, around 1,000,000-acres were reserved by King Kamehameha III as “Crown” lands, 1,500,000-acres were given by the King (as “Government” lands) to the ‘government and people’, approximately 1,500,000-acres were set aside for the Chiefs (as “Konohiki” lands) and less than 30,000-acres of land were awarded to the native tenants (Kuleana lands.)

Kamehameha III divided the lands he reserved for himself into two separate parts; the smaller portion he retained for his personal use (“Crown” lands); the larger portion he gave ‘to the Chiefs and people’ (“Government” lands.)

On June 7, 1848, Kamehameha III approved a Law, passed at the Council House, that listed respective ahupua‘a and ili that were “the private lands of His Majesty Kamehameha III … and said lands shall be regulated and disposed according to his royal will and pleasure subject to the rights of native tenants.”

Another long list of ahupua‘a and ili were noted as “the lands of the Hawaiian Government.” A shorter list of O‘ahu lands were “set apart for the use of the Fort in Honolulu, to be cultivated by soldiers and other tenants under the direction of the Governor of O‘ahu”. (An Act Relating to the Lands of His Majesty the King and the Government, 1848)

For a while, the ‘Crown’ lands were viewed and handled “to be the private lands of His Majesty Kamehameha III, to have and to hold to himself, his heirs and successors forever”. (An Act To Relieve The Royal Domain From Encumbrances, And To Render The Same Inalienable, 1865)

Kamehameha IV administered his land in much the same way as his uncle (as if it was his own private property.) In dispositions, Queen Emma joined him, waiving her right of dower in such lands.

Queen Emma was the first to make a claim to the Crown Lands as private property, with the death of Kamehameha IV.

She “claimed that all the property possessed by her late royal husband was his private property” and made claim of dower to one-half of the Crown Lands in the royal domain; the Attorney General opposed her claim, noting they constituted “a Royal Domain annexed to the Hawaiian Crown”.

Kamehameha V responded that he, as “hereditary successor to the throne, shall inherit the entire estate, both real and personal derived from his Majesty Kamehameha III, at his decease, and held by Kamehameha IV, the King lately deceased.”

The Hawai‘i Supreme Court, in deciding the Estate of Kamehameha IV noted, “In 1840 (Kamehameha III) granted the first Constitution by which he declared and established the equality before the law of all his subjects, chiefs, and people alike.”

“By that Constitution, he voluntarily divested himself of some of his powers and attributes as an absolute Ruler, and conferred certain political rights upon his subjects, admitting them to a share with himself in legislation and government. This was the beginning of a government as contradistinguished from the person of the King …”

“… who was thenceforth to be regarded rather as the executive chief and political head of the nation than its absolute governor. Certain kinds of public property began to be recognized as Government property, and not as the King’s.”

The Court noted, “These lands are to be in the perpetual keeping of the Legislative Council (Nobles and Representatives) or in that of the superintendents of said lands, appointed by them from time to time, and shall be regulated, leased, or sold, in accordance with the will of said Nobles and Representatives, for the good of the Hawaiian Government, and to promote the dignity of the Hawaiian Crown.”

The Court found, “while it was clearly the intention of Kamehameha III to protect the lands which he reserved to himself out of the domain which had been acquired by his family through the prowess and skill of his father, the conqueror, from the danger of being treated as public domain or Government property …”

“… it was also his intention to provide that those lands should descend to his heirs and successors, the future wearers of the crown which the conquerer had won; and we understand the act of 7th June, 1848, as having secured both those objects.” (Supreme Court Decision in the Matter of the Estate of Kamehameha IV, 1864)

The Crown Land stayed with the government and dower was acknowledged with Queen Emma, however there was a “settlement of a permanent annuity upon Queen Emma in lieu of her claim of dower in the royal domain.” (Alexander)

This litigation led to legislation which affirmed the decision of the court; on January 3, 1865, Kamehameha V approved an Act of the Legislative Assembly that initially noted …

“the history of said lands shows that they were vested in the King for the purpose of maintaining the Royal State and Dignity; and it is therefore disadvantageous to the public interest that the said lands should be alienated, or the said Royal Domain diminished.”

That 1865 law noted the Crown Lands “shall be henceforth inalienable, and shall descend to the heirs and successors of the Hawaiian Crown forever”.

The Act also noted that, “during the two late reigns, the said Royal Domain has been greatly diminished, and is now charged with mortgages to secure considerable sums of money” – the Law converted the mortgages to bonds. (An Act To Relieve The Royal Domain From Encumbrances, And To Render The Same Inalienable, 1865)

On the death of Kamehameha V, his half-sister, Ruth Keʻelikōlani, inherited his private lands, but the Crown Lands were held by the commissioners for the benefit of his successors.

Later (September 13, 1880,) Claus Spreckels purchased from Ruth Keʻelikōlani all her interest or claim in and to the Crown Lands. Rather than taking the issue to court, a compromise and an act was carried through the Legislature of 1882, where Spreckels received the ahupua‘a of Wailuku with ili and quitclaimed any interest in other Crown Lands. (Alexander)

Queen Lili‘uokalani made a claim to Crown Lands as her personal property. Noting, “Her cause of action is predicated upon an alleged ‘vested equitable life interest’ to certain lands described in the petition, known as ‘crown lands,’ of which interest she was divested by the defendants.”

However, the US Court of Claims noted, “It may not be unworthy of remark that it is very unusual, even in cases of conquest, for the conqueror to do more than to displace the sovereign and assume dominion over the country.”

The Court concluded, “The crown lands were the resourceful methods of income to sustain, in part at least, the dignity of the office to which they were inseparably attached. When the office ceased to exist they became as other lands of the Sovereignty and passed to the defendants as part and parcel of the public domain.”

“Since 1865, so far as the record before us discloses, the character of the crown lands has not been changed; they have passed to the succeeding monarch. The income, less expense of management, has been used to support the royal office and treated as belonging to the Crown. All other property of the King has uniformly passed to his heirs regardless of his royal successor.”

The Court further noted, “The constitution of the Republic of Hawai‘i, as respects the crown lands, provided as follows: ‘That portion of the public domain heretofore known as crown land is hereby declared to have been heretofore, and now to be, the property of the Hawaiian Government …” (Lili‘uokalani v The United States, 1910)

Today, abstracting (researching title) government lands is fundamentally different from abstracting private lands. For private lands, owners have a deed that evidences ownership and a title company can trace the ‘chain of title’ at the Bureau of Conveyances by researching the transfers of the land from owner to owner via legal documents.

Instead of a deed or other legal document, the State owns the majority of former crown and government land through passage of laws. Public land title is passed by ‘operation of law.’

Today, there is no paper title for the majority of public lands, i.e., there is no deed showing the State owns it. There is no ‘chain of title’ for the majority of former Crown and Government Lands, since the lands were never conveyed out of the government.

We now generally refer to the Crown and Government Lands as ‘ceded’ lands. Under the Admission Act, about 1.2-million acres are to “be held by (the) State as a public trust” to promote one or more of five purposes:
1. support of the public schools and other public educational institutions
2. betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians (per the Hawaiian Homes Act, 1920)
3. development of farm and home ownership on as widespread a basis as possible
4. making of public improvements
5. provision of lands for public use

As noted in the earlier discussion of Crown and Government Lands above, these lands, though under the control of changing sovereigns and governments (Kingdom to Provisional Government to Republic to Territory to State,) were in and continue to remain in the ‘public domain’ for the public good.

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March 6, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Pulu

Hāpuʻu is an endemic tree fern found in wet forests in association with mature ʻōhiʻa at elevations from about 1,000-feet to 6,000-feet.

The tree can range from heights to about 7-35 feet. The fronds rise up high to about thirty feet or more and are 3-9 feet in diameter. The long green fronds of the tree grow to be about 12 feet long.

Young stems were formerly used to make hats; the starchy core has been used for cooking and laundry, the outer fibrous part to line or form baskets for plants. (Pukui) The edible starch in the core of the trunk and the young leaves were eaten during the time of famine. (KSBE)

The young unfurled fronds are densely covered with soft golden colored, wool-like fibers called pulu; Hawaiians stuffed bodies of their dead with pulu after removing vital organs. (Pukui)

Later, pulu became a commodity, “Pulu, or fern down, is also an important and staple article of export. This soft, yellow, silken down, gathered from the exhaustless fern fields of Hilo and Puna, is much used in California for upholstery as a substitute for feathers, wool and hair.” (Titus Coan, March 5, 1858)

“The pulu of commerce is obtained from this fern, and is extensively used … in the making of beds and mattresses, and stuffing of sofas and chairs.” (Baxley, 1865)

“More than two hundred thousand pounds of this article has been shipped from Hilo during the past year. Men, women, and children engage in collecting it, and many of our usual villages are deserted for months at a time while the people are collecting pulu in the jungle.” (Titus Coan, March 5, 1858)

“(O)nly a small quantity, a few ounces, is found on each plant, the growth of about four years. The labor of gathering pulu was slow and tedious. When picked it was wet and had to be brought down to the lowlands to be dried. The natives were employed in gathering it, men, women and children, living for weeks at a time in the mountains, in crude shelter huts.” (Thrum, 1929)

“In the early sixties (1860s) the business of picking and packing pulu had become so important that trails cut by the many natives thus employed opened the crater country far more than ever before.” (Bingham; Holmes)

“In the natural state the pulu forms a snuff-colored silken envelope for the young and tender branches of the fern, which grow from the top of the stalk or trunk, forming beautiful scrolls until of sufficient strength to supersede the older branches and leaves that droop on all sides like graceful plumes.”

“In gathering pulu the natives cut from the top of the fern trunk the tender scrolls in mass, then strip off the soft fibrous wrapper that protects them, which they loosen by picking, and expose for several weeks on platforms to the rain and sun.”

“From two to four pounds are gathered from a full-sized tree. When perfectly cleansed and dry, it is bagged and sometimes baled for shipping, and is much sought after for the California market.” (Baxley, 1865)

“I have ridden through vast fields of this species of fern in the vicinity of the volcano Kilauea, that extended as far as the eye could see.”

“On the edges of these fields nearest the volcanoes the lava has flowed and covered large tracks, forming plateaus upon which the natives have built pleasant hamlets, and are carrying on a lucrative business in gathering and drying the pulu for shipment to San Francisco, where it is extensively used for filling mattresses.”

“From a single fern they gather a tuft about the size of a man’s hand and spread it on the grass and lava banks, where it is thoroughly dried, then bagged and transferred on the backs of mules to the sea coasts. There it is pressed in bales for shipment like cotton.” (The Pulu for Mattresses, Scientific American, August 23, 1862; Uyeoka)

“The most remarkable of the gigantic ferns of this belt are the great tree-ferns, with branches four or five feet long. At the foot of these trees is found a soft, feather-like substance, called pulu which forms an article of considerable trade. It is used extensively in California for bedding …” (The Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review, October 1, 1864; Uyeoka)

“(P)ulu gatherers, who are scattered through the forests in all directions, from one to three miles from the volcano;” making “the wilderness of Kilauea”” one of his “stations in pastoral tours.”

“From Kilauea I went about ten miles, into the highland forests of Hawaii, where there was another camp of about sixty pulu gatherers. This camp is a romantic one. It is a little opening of field lava and sand, one-fourth of a mile in diameter, nearly circular, and surrounded by tall forests and jungle.” (Coan, Missionary Herald, 1864-1865)

Pulu picking could be dangerous, “As I followed a path made by the pulu-pickers through the dense forest, I came upon a large hole on the edge of the path which proved to be the entrance to a cave of great depth.”

“The path had been turned to one side to avoid it, and in the dark it would be exceedingly dangerous. Such holes are common in this part of Puna, and natives occasionally disappear mysteriously. Brushing through the bushes I came to a precipice forming the edge of a crater nearly three quarters of a mile in diameter and seven hundred feet deep.” (Brigham, 1868)

Likewise the market for pulu changed, “Those who have used it, however, are substituting hair or straw on account of the unhealthiness of the pulu, which, from its heat, has the same ill effects as feathers, and it popularly thought to increase rheumatism.”

“It has been recently exported to China in considerable quantities, and it is not improbable that as the demand from California decreases that from China will increase. The natives are largely engaged in gathering it, and are employed more or less by the Chinese merchants of Honolulu …” (The Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review, October 1, 1864; Uyeoka)

“According to the customs tables, the last year of pulu exports was 1884, with but 465 pounds, the two years previous being without any, so that practically the life of the industry had an existence of but thirty-one years (with exports) ranging generally from 200,000 to 649,000 pounds.” (Thrum, 1929)

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Tree Fern Pulu Fiber

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cibotium_species-tree fern-pulu

Hawaiian Tree Fern Pulu Fiber

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Cibotium glaucum ‘Hapu Apulu’

Cibotium_glaucum_(Hapu’u_pulu)

March 5, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻAukelenuiaʻīkū

The waters of Kāne surround us constantly and provide life for all living things. The story of ʻAukelenuiaʻīkū (ʻAukele) is one of a hero’s quest to find these waters and to learn what every young man must know to be mature in this coming-of-age tale. (MACC)

Iku was the father, a great chief, and Kapapaiakea was the mother, from whom twelve children were born. Kuaihelani was the country in which they lived. The names of the children were: Kekamakahinuiaiku, Kuaiku, Nohoaiku, Heleaiku, Kapukapuaiku, Heaaiku, Lonoheaiku, Naaiku, Noiaiku, Ikumailani and ʻAukelenuiaʻīkū, aIl males; and Kaomeaaiku, a female.

From the first-born child to the one just ahead of ʻAukele, Iku never took them up in his arms, never spoke of leaving the kingdom to any of them, nor did he make much of any of them.

But at the birth of ʻAukele, Iku took the greatest interest in him, took care of him, took him up in his arms, and to him he willed all his honor and glory and the kingdom. Because of this show of favoritism on their father’s part toward ʻAukelenuiaʻīkū, his brothers and sister hated him and they tried to devise some way of getting rid of him.

He wanted to join his brothers in a wrestling match, but was forbidden by the father, who fears their jealousy. He steals away and shoots an arrow into their midst; it is a twisted arrow, theirs are jointed.

The brothers are angry, but when one of them strikes the lad, his own arm is broken. The younger brother takes up each one in turn and throws him into the sea.

The brothers pretend friendship and invite him into the house. Then, they throw him into the pit of the ancestress Kamo‘oinanea who eats men, but she spares her young relative, and described to him the land ruled over by Namakaokaha‘i (The eyes of Kaha‘i.)

She gives him a food-providing leaf, an axe, a knife, a bit of her tail which contains her “real body” (kino maoli), her feather skirt (pāʻu) and kahili which have the power to protect him from flames and to reduce his enemies to ashes, and a box containing the god Lonoikouali‘i to warn him of approaching danger.

When his brothers see him return safe from the pit they determine to flee to foreign lands. They make one more attempt to kill him by shutting him into a water hole, but one soft-hearted brother lets him out. ʻAukele then persuades the brothers to let him accompany them.

On the way he feeds them with “food and meat” from his club, Kaiwakaapu. They sail eight months, touch at Holaniku. where they get awa, sugar cane, bananas, and coconuts, and arrive in four months more at Lalakeenuiakane, the land of Queen Namakaokahai.

The queen is guarded by four brothers in bird form (Kanemoe, Kaneapua, Leapua and Kahaumana) by two maid servants in animal form, and by a dog, Moela. The whole party is reduced to ashes at the shaking of the queen’s skirt, except Aukele, who escapes and by his quick wit wins the friendship of the queen’s maids and her brothers.

The next adventure is after the water of life to restore the brothers to life. The first trip is unsuccessful. Instead of flying in a straight line between the sky (lewa) and space (nenelu—literally, mud) ʻAukele falls into space and is obliged to cling to the moon for support.

Meanwhile his wife thinks him dead and has summoned Night, Day, Sun, Stars, Thunder, Rainbow, Lightning, Water-spout, Fog, Fine rain, etc., to mourn for him. Then, through her supernatural knowledge she hears him declare to the moon, her grandfather, Kaukihikamalama, his birth and ancestry, and learns for the first time that they are related.

On the next trip he reaches a deep pit, at the bottom of which is the well of everlasting life, the property of Kamohoalii.

It is guarded by two maternal uncles of ʻAukele, Kanenaiau and Hawewe, and a maternal aunt, Luahinekaikapu, the sister of the lizard grandmother, who is blind.

ʻAukele steals the bananas she is roasting, dodges her anger, and restores her sight. She paints up his hands to look like Kamohoalii’s and the guards at the well hand him the water gourd.

His own attempt to use the water to restore his brothers and nephew is unsuccessful, but, with the few drops remaining, his wife brings them all to life and he shares the rule with them and even gives them his wife as well.

As time passes, ʻAukele is attracted by his wife’s young cousins Pele and Hiʻiaka and pretends to go fishing in order to meet them. His wife discovers this and drives them from the country.

They migrate first to Kauai, and flee from island to island until they finally reach Hawaii. Soon after, ʻAukele decides to return to his old home, Kuaihelani.

Kuaiheilani, suggested as a mythical place, is the traditional name for what we refer to as Midway Atoll. The origin of this name can be traced to an ancient homeland of the Hawaiian people, located somewhere in central Polynesia. (Kikiloi)

The image shows the Hawaii archipelago. (Lots of Information from Fornander, Beckwith, Westervelt and Smithsonian)

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March 4, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mailable Matter

In early colonial times, correspondents depended on friends, merchants, and Native Americans to carry messages among the colonies. In 1639, Richard Fairbanks’ tavern in Boston was designated the first official repository of mail brought from or sent overseas (consistent with the European practice of using coffee houses and taverns as mail stations.)

On July 26, 1775 (shortly after the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775,) the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War,) members of the Second Continental Congress agreed that a Postmaster General be appointed for the United Colonies. That year, Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General of the Postal Service.

A couple years later (January 20, 1778,) Captain James Cook, made ‘contact’ with the Islands and anchored his ships near the mouth of the Waimea River on Kauai’s southwestern shore. After a couple of weeks, there, they headed to the west coast of North America.

Like early mail exchange in the American Colonies, following Cook’s contact, mail in Hawaiʻi was handled privately by employing forwarders or by making arrangements directly with a ship captain; most letters were folded inward and sealed so the address could be written on the blank outer side. (HawaiianStamps)

Hawaiʻi and the United States agreed on a ‘Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation and Extradition, December 20, 1849;’ among other things, Article 15 of the Treaty created an arrangement for delivery of mail. (State Department)

“Whereas a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation, between the United States of America and his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, was concluded and signed at Washington, on the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine”.

“Mail arrangements – So soon as steam or other mail packets under the flag of either of the contracting parties shall have commenced running between their respective ports of entry, the contracting parties agree to receive at the post-offices of those ports all mailable matter, and to forward it as directed …”

“All mailable matter destined for the Hawaiian Islands shall be received at the several post-offices in the United States, and forwarded to San Francisco, or other ports on the Pacific coast of the United States, whence the postmasters shall despatch it by the regular mail packets to Honolulu …”

“It shall be optional to prepay the postage on letters in either country, but postage on printed sheets and newspapers shall in all cases be prepaid. The respective post-office departments of the contracting parties shall in their accounts, which are to be adjusted annually, be credited with all dead letters returned.” (US Statutes at Large and Treaties, 1845-1851)

On November 2, 1850, The Polynesian, “Official Journal of the Hawaiian Government,” announced it was keeping a letter bag open to receive letters and promised to place on board reliable vessels any letters deposited in its letter bag.

By 1850, almost all mail was being sent to/from Hawaiʻi via San Francisco to enter the mail stream there and be carried in the US mail via Panama to New York. (HawaiianStamps)

Hawaiʻi opened a post office at Honolulu and Henry Martyn Whitney (who worked at the Polynesian) was appointed Postmaster of Honolulu (December 22, 1850.) The location of the new post office was at the office of The Polynesian. (Whitney later left the Polynesian and started his own newspaper, the Pacific Commercial Advertiser (forerunner of Honolulu Advertiser.))

During the fifty years of Hawaii’s independent postal system from 1850 to 1900, the post office occupied three premises: a room in The Polynesian Office (1850-1854;) rooms in Honolulu Hale, situated next door to The Polynesian Office (1854-1871;) and about half of the ground floor in the “New Post Office” (Kamehameha V Post Office, 1871-1922,) situated on the former site of The Polynesian Office.

On June 14, 1900, the Kamehameha V Post Office officially became a unit of the United States Post Office (the year that Hawaii became a Territory of the US.)

In 1922, the United States Post Office was moved to the Federal building and control of the old building was returned to the Territory of Hawaii. It was remodeled as a postal substation and for use as the Territorial Tax office. (NPS)

When Whitney was postmaster, he conceived and produced Hawaiʻi’s first stamps, issued in 1851 (the stamps are now called ‘Hawaiian Missionaries,’ all printed locally by letterpress at the Government Printing Office.

The stamps were in three denominations: a 2-cent stamp paid the newspaper rate, a 5-cent stamp paid the rate for regular mail to the United States, and a 13-cent stamp paid the rate to the US East Coast.

The first three stamps in the issue were announced for sale on October 1, 1851, at the Honolulu and Lahaina post offices. By early April, 1852, the fourth stamp was printed to correct confusion and state clearly the 13¢ value was to pay both Hawaiian and United States postage through to any East Coast United States destination.

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Folded Letter to C Brewer-October 18, 1850

First-day cover of The Polynesian letter bag – postmarked November 2, 1850

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Henry_Martyn_Whitney-WC

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Kamehameha_V_Post_Office_(NPS)

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March 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hole Hole Bushi

“Kane wa kachiken
Washa horehoreyo
Ase to namida no
Tomokasegi”

“My husband cuts the cane stalks
And I trim the leaves
With sweat and tears we both work
For our means.”

Japanese laborers quickly comprised the majority of Hawaiian sugar plantation workers after their large-scale importation as contract workers in 1885. (Oxford Press)

Their folk songs provide good examples of the intersection between local work/life and the global connection which the workers clearly perceived after arriving.

While many are songs of lamentation, others reflect a rapid adaptation to a new society in which other ethnic groups were arranged in untidy hierarchical order–the origins of a unique multicultural social order dominated by an oligarchy of white planters. (Oxford Press)

From 1885-1924, about 200,000 Japanese came to Hawai‘i to work on the sugar plantations. (Kim) By 1900, the Japanese population, about 40% of the total, was the largest ethnic group in Hawai‘i. (Densho)

Many of those Issei women, first generation of Japanese immigrants, came as picture brides and found themselves working long hours in the canefields.

The men cut the cane; the women’s work was to strip the leaves from sugar cane stalks so that it produces more juice while providing fertilizer for the growing plant.

These women sang songs about work and the dilemmas of plantation life. The songs, called Hole Hole Bushi, used old Japanese folk tunes, and mixed Hawaiian and Japanese words for dramatic lyrics. (Kim)

Hole Hole Bushi is a hybrid term that combines the Japanese word for tune (bushi) with a Hawaiian term describing the stripping the leaves off of sugar cane (hole.) Issei women composed and sung a repertoire of these songs, set to familiar Japanese melodies, which expressed their hardships, disappointments, and hopes. (Kim)

Hole Hole Bushi is a folk song which Issei (first-generation Japanese overseas emigrants) who immigrated to Hawai‘i at the end of the 19th century, sang at their work in the sugarcane fields. (Nakahara)

Folk songs are short stories from the souls of common people. Some, like Mexican corridos or Scottish ballads, reworked in the Appalachias, are stories of tragic or heroic episodes. Others, like the African American blues, reach from a difficult present back into slavery and forward into a troubled future. (Oxford Press)

Japanese workers in Hawaii’s plantations created their own versions, in form more like their traditional tanka or haiku poetry.

These Holehole Bushi describe the experiences of one particular group caught in the global movements of capital, empire, and labor during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (Oxford Press)

The name “Hole Hole Bushi,” first appears in Saishin Hawai Annai (The Latest Hawai‘i Guide) by Namitarō Murasaki (1920.) “Hole-hole Bushi” is described as one of Hawai‘i’s specialties to see, as in the following:

“Honolulu is a song-less town. One rarely hears singing except through a phonograph or overhearing a spree coming out of a restaurant. Of course, new popular songs are imported every time Japanese ships come into port. But these songs are sung only at tea houses for the time being, and mostly disappear before they spread outside.”

“Nevertheless, if you go to the countryside, you can still hear the loud singing of a tune saturated with a sorrowful mood. That is “Hole-hole Bushi”—a distinctive feature in Hawai‘i.” (Nakahara)

The lyrics are mostly in Japanese with Hawaiian and English words mixed in, and follow a poetic form with lines of 7+7+7+5 syllables. The texts cover a wide range of topics, from the hardships of field labor and uncertainty in life to the relationships between men and women, name-calling and gossip.

Around 1930, the lives of the Issei improved, and many moved to cities. The Hole Hole Bushi which had been sung in the field disappeared, and, in its place, lively-sounding versions of Hole Hole Bushi were performed in Japanese tea houses.

During the Second World War, the government banned Japanese cultural activities. After the war, however, the great success of the Nisei troops in the fight received admiration. However, Hole Hole Bushi was never performed; for the Issei, Hole Hole Bushi had become an embarrassment. (Nakahara)

Hole Hole Bushi performed by Allison Arakawa at Japanese American National Museum: