<b>Contents:</b> A Search for Küulakai; Aumäkua of Kona, Oahu; Voyaging Chiefs of Käneohe Bay; Killing the Cannibal King; He Mele No Käne: A Song of Life; A Twisted Tale: Jack London’s "Koolau the Leper"

Storied Landscapes: Hawaiian Literature and Place

Politics & Social Sciences

Kawaharada, Dennis

Kawaharada, Dennie

Social Sciences

Dennis Kawaharada

Local Geography: Essays on Multicultural Hawaii takes the reader on a journey through Hawaii's multiethnic society during the second half of the twentieth century. In eight autobiographical essays, the author looks back at his colonial upbringing and education and his attempt to find a center from which to develop beliefs and values that fit the land, sea, community, and cultures in which he grew up. He examines the tensions among descendants of natives, immigrants, and colonials and the roles that place, race, class, culture, and nation have played in shaping his identity.

Local Geography: Essays on Multicultural Hawaii

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Roads of Oku: Journeys in the Heartland is a collection of seven essays on Japanese history, culture, and literature, based on the author's research and travels in his ancestral homeland. Pat Matsueda writes in her review, "It's a revelation and a pleasure to travel with Kawaharada on his journey from Hawaii to homeland and heartland. ("Literary, personal pilgrimage comes to life in new book," Pat Matsueda, Honolulu Star Advertiser, May 10, 2015). Excerpts from Matsueda's review: After summarizing how his grandparents [immigrated to Hawai'i from Japan], were affected by World War II and influenced the way he grew up, the book alternates between two voices. The first is Kawaharada's personal voice recounting the trips he made to Japan, each time recovering some part of his family's culture and history. The second is that of a third-person narrator presenting deeply researched accounts of Hawaiian history and Japanese religion, customs, geography and archaeology. The last three essays in the book are perhaps the most moving and insightful. The title essay recounts the journey by Basho, "possessed by wanderlust," to set out on foot from Edo. In Snow Countryexamines the work of Nobel laureates Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzaburo Oe, among other writers. Hokule‘a in Yokohama describes the traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe's 2007 journey to Japan. By this time a reader has grown to understand the relationship between the thoughtful, poetic voice of the traveler and the distant, seemingly dispassionate voice of the scholar. Seven Essays 1. Child of History―about the author's grandparents from Hiroshima and their early twentieth century immigration to Hawai'i with thousands of other Japanese settlers; reflections on the history that led to the 1941 attack by the Japanese navy on the US fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i and to the 1945 US atomic bombing of Hiroshima City; visits to Gonomura and Tomo, the Hiroshima hometowns of the author's grandparents. 2. Where Kami Alight―about the roots of Shinto religion and the worship of the sun goddess Amaterasu and numerous other kami (deities); an overview of Shinto shrines and annual festivals and rites of passage for individuals. 3. Tracking Mankai―about the tradition of celebrating sakura, or cherry blossoms, at mankai, or full bloom; a spring 2008 journey to track mankai along two historic roads between Edo and Kyoto―the Tokaido (Eastern Sea Road) and the Nakasendo (Inland Mountain Road). 4. Fujisan and Mountain Worship―about the worship of Mt. Fuji and other mountains in Japan; the history of Shugendo, a practice of mountain asceticism combining elements of Shinto, Buddhism and Taoism. 5. Roads of Oku―about the Zen Buddhist haiku poet Basho and his famous 1689 journey from Edo to northern Japan (Oku). 6. In Snow Country―about the novel Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, Japan’s first Nobel literary prize winner (1968); a January 2008 visit to Snow Country to see Echigo Yuzawa, the setting of Kawabata's novel and to attend a winter fire festival in Nozawa, Nagano. 7. Hokule‘a in Yokohama―about the summer 2007 sail into Yokohama by the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule‘a, commemorating Hawaiian King Kalakaua’s visit to Yokohama over a century earlier; reflections on multiculturalism, race relations, and identity in contemporary Japan through the eyes of authors such as Ryu Murakami, Haruki Murakami, and Kenzaburo Oe. The text includes 6 maps and 63 black and white photos. Roads of Oku: Journeys in the Heartland is the third in a trilogy of essay collections. The first two are about journeys at home―Storied Landscapes: Hawaiian Literature and Place (1999) and Local Geography: Essays on Multicultural Hawai‘i (2004). Both collections are distributed by the University of Hawai'i Press.

Roads of Oku: Journeys in the Heartland

Literature & Fiction

United States

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Local Geography: Essays on Multicultural Hawai'i

<p>"Storied Landscapes: Hawaiian Literature and Place" contains six essay about places in Hawai'i and traditional stories and chants of gods and people associated with them: the fishing gods of Hana, Maui; the owl and shark gods of Honolulu; the voyaging chiefs of Kane'ohe Bay, on the windward side of O'ahu; the cannibal king of central O'ahu; the water god of Nihoa, in Papahanaumokuakea (the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands); and Kaluaiko'olau and Pi'ilani, a husband and wife who lived in Kalalau Valley on Kaua'i in the 19th century.From "Sense of Place," a review by Stu Dawrs, Honolulu Weekly. Vol 9, No. 45, Nov. 17-23, 1999:Writing about his search for information on the fishing deity Ku'ula-kai in the opening piece of his six-essay book, Kawaharada lays the groundwork for Storied Landscapes: "Where were the spirits of the land? Was it possible to claim to know, to be a part of, to dwell comfortably in a place without honoring ancestral spirits and traditions which humanize every landscape?"For Kawaharada, this process of honoring is a wide-ranging one, taking on many forms. The opening piece, "A Search for Ku'ula-kai," centers on a personal narrative involving Kawaharada's family history on Maui and O'ahu, along with his father's love of fishing. In the process of telling that story, the author covers a variety of matters, including historical, geographical and religious aspects of Hawaiian fishing deities, and the ecological havoc wreaked by modern commercial fishing techniques.In a scant 112 pages, Kawaharada manages to cover much, from a geographical/historical/legendary tour of the Manoa/Mo'ili'ili area to a scathing deconstruction of Jack London's "Ko'olau The Leper." On more than one level, his ability to draw from a wide range of well-documented sources is one of the true values of his book. On the straightforward, academic plain, the book's bibliography covers a wide swath of essential ground. Beyond that, though, the overall sense one gets from reading "Storied Landscapes" is one of deeper meanings and an interconnectedness of names and places that we might otherwise take for granted. In that sense, the book plants the seeds of a lifetime's challenge for its readers: To take an active role in learning about the land, to celebrate the myths that humanize, and to incorporate those myths into a daily existence - not just culturally, but economically and politically - that meshes more completely with life on these islands.From "Legends and living color of the Islands," a review by Charlene Luke, Honolulu Advertiser, October 9, 1999:"Storied Landscapes" contrasts moral values with the ideas of mortal men. It blends fact with fiction, letting you pick and choose to form your own opinion. And it mixes Hawaiian landscapes with ancient legends.From a heartfelt firsthand encounter, Kawaharada humanizes the face of Kalaupapa, offering words that soften nearly a century of infamy and segregation. He examines our fears and gives us facts and figures that help put things into perspective. Once you've digested all the qualitative and quantitative data with which Kawaharada surrounds these Hawaiian landscapes, you'll never view the Islands' landmarks quite the same way again.</p>

Essays & Correspondence

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Books by Kawaharada, Dennis