Spectrum Hawaii; Shave Ice; Ginger Lei; John Charlot

The following program is a production of HGT in Honolulu Hawaii Public Television the following program was funded in part by the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts. Today on spec'ing you find ice cream treat. I'm legend in the rain forest and a scholar of Polynesia. James McEwen dance and perform a duet in Grand Avenue surrounded by a compelling young man fetches the spirit. The ginger blossom below

gin John Shiloh reflects on ancient Hawaiian religion as he surveys the parties in spirit in first case the many tantalizing flavors of shaved ice. When you join three spirits on the quest for the cone's supreme Tom Andy and Joe at search through town and traverse the cane fields of holly either to find the right bite of shave ice. Remember that first bite how good it was how cold it felt melting in your mouth. That first cool sweet mouthful of Shaved Ice shaved ice is so much a part of growing up in Hawaii. One of the memories says small kid times a reward for having been good at school treats so well on hot days.

The hoped for price after school. On the way home after a day at the beach a celebration of the director blues tempers going. Hello how are you doing. Great. How is ending with you. Super. What are you guys doing. We're going to a big deal of yours. You know I just closed a big deal also and I want to celebrate today. What do you say. No no no champagne. She advised girl. She was for real. Ok I'll pick you up in about 10 minutes or so. I think many of us remember ETR first shave is much more than tasting other delights like ice cream ingredients were not expensive and were readily available. Ice syrup a bench decision

on OK you guys are really a super super treat. This is my favorite place. The guy makes his own eyes and his voice is so so far. Tony you come here all the time. Oh yeah. Every Saturday I come down here after playing tennis and that's why I know it's the best. I mean I've tried all other places in this place I guess so far. It'll melt in your mouth I guarantee it. Money back guarantee. Ok you try that when you go. I tell you the best. Right down the best. No. I'm going to get good stuff down here. OK. OK. We're talking graduations. You actually like you like you call us. How do you like this. Small. Small but

you know Russia does crunch crunch. Let me tell you guys when you come with me and I'll take you over to my favorite place. OK. All right let's go to her place to go to my place too. OK. We'll go to her place. OK. So we go like the first cast iron shave ice machines were cranked by hand. These were laser powered by electricity some operating with a foot pedal others with hands I I write my two friends that they don't believe you can buy something right off cause it's too much. And this machine about 1940 or 1941 lot of people use it now for about 17 years and they start to use the same location we are. It was a old wooden building but building a nice change of scenery. Oh OK. And I had this story now

for 32 years. I love making sure since that time and she makes her own flavors. Yes sir. So where are you featuring this week. Any new flavors. Well we have bubble gum. Oh my goodness. Well as the saying goes what you don't you don't know. OK OK. OK so what do you guys want mobile home. I'll try watermelon. All right. I'm a fan.

So let me say one thing it's good. I think my is best. Let's go to my place. OK. In other words I don't get to lightly armed. It was cooking up. Hope not man.

I am Kate pink. Pink and brown. It. You have the windows mix root beer with any flavor. John you know this is going to be virgin shaved ice. Nothing is shaved ice and strawberry You know the red clover killed. Decide now what size. Yeah. On top of that car expensive. And do you start with only nickel you feel when you feel it. But you can buy what you got. OK. You guys have to do a lot like ice cream and black beans. I want to try the rainbow. You know I don't know pee and you know there is yellow. Let's turn lemons blue blue them in school. Look at Tom. I'm just going to give you a break. Can I just have the license plate. Strawberry but it's my favorite. OK. OK. Let it go let it go. We got it.

Where do we go from here. I think we do it for you. Yeah. I'm hungry. And we're going to. And I'm going to just show a very healthy pink brown and move on. I want to look like ice cream. I just want my mother electrican every night for that

dream. I know where you're coming to you the icing on the brown and remote place. Can see nothing. I don't want to know

that this is better. Get your number one all over. Can you remember that first bite how it tasted so sweet green yellow lemon Brown Root Beer. Nowadays there are so many new flavors to choose from that it is often hard to reach a decision. So that's what you often end up with is coming up on spectrum is Polynesian Scala Zhang shallow

now Suzanne. Oh yes to Turin. And James why meat. Deep in the rain forest why math falls Romana provides the music with a song entitled cool lay Fouhy as James Sainte-Suzanne dance the legend of ginger day. You may

not be known may be dead. Hi hi hi

hi. Hi I

mean Hawaii Public Television's Nino Jay Martin visits with the son of fame to this Josh I know Dr. Josh shallow will discuss his new book entitled chanting the universe and point out the devilish and enduring roots of highways religious culture. John it's nice to have you here with us on spectum thank you for coming in today. You have been a resident of the White House for quite some time. And before that you were at the branded universe are not going but rather in Munich. You graduated khichdi. Yes well we came here in 1949 of all things when I was 8 years old and I've been kicking around ever since to the mainland and back here for your mom and your dad and

my brother Martin brother Peter and sister and. And now you left the Hawaiian Islands lost to us certainly and you've gone up to Brendin University of Manitoba Canada. Why did you leave here. Well I couldn't find a job here in Hawaii and they offered Grant's job there. I've been working in the university and we developed a whole series of courses on combining religion but they wouldn't support that position. Now even those courses have been cut I understand. The thing that's interesting though is we we still haven't lost touch with you. You're still here in spirit and also through a new book that you've just written called changing the universe. And why did you select the title chosen to utilize my original title was Hawaiian religious culture which for me says a lot about wine culture is that its culture and its religion and that the two were absolutely permeating each other but chanting is so important in a way.

And I wrote much of the book from poetry reading poetry and finding out what it said about Hawaiian culture and the concern of poetry is really basically the universe. They talk about flowers they talk about lovemaking they talk about people behind all of those things you always have that context the context as a whole universe. So chanting the universe put those two ends together for me. What was your purpose your reason for writing. Well I'd just started studying Hawaiian culture. It took me a long time to get around to it. I must say we came in 48 and as you know my father 49 and my father immediately got into Hawaiian culture and he wanted to get me into it. But I really had to cover my own roots so I had to go back to Greece and Rome and the ancient Israelites who actually lived and worked my way up. Yes and going back to France for instance was very important for me. I'm very French and

going back there and living in France kind of got in touch with myself and it was only after I learned about my own culture that I was able to get into a wine. Would you consider it a scholarly work. Well it's hopefully written for a popular audience. But I think I have more scholarly background in the book than is usual in such a work. I think the main thing is is that I work from Hawaiian sources. I've read it by now a good deal of Hawaiian literature and I felt that that expressed for me what one culture was all about. So I did my own translations in the book one thing in your book that you mentioned and that is the wine saying look to the source. Well it's a very famous line saying and Hawaiians feel that it says a lot about their way of thinking and we have that also in Western culture our word principle comes from the Latin word which means the beginning of things. And the idea is that

if you know how something began you understand how it operates you understand its character. So Hawaiians are asked that question a lot when they're trying to understand something and they can ask about little things what is the origin of this stone. What is this origin of this person's personality. They can ask about the whole universe were they talking about the essence of something you. I'm trying to find out how Hawaiian thinking works. In other words not this fact not fact. But what is the whole cultural process behind Hawaiian culture. What's going on in their heads and their feelings as they do this or that particular action. Doesn't this also relate to the purpose of something the origination of something for a given purpose. How do the boys look at them. Well they use the concept of a search of course things can have a purpose to make and had to cut it didn't you. You tend not to to catch fish motional again

they see this all in a much deeper context than just one particular purpose. They see this as a great surge where people are trying to understand this world that they're living and trying to understand themselves so everything they do turns into a kind of meditative effort that meditative sinking into and appreciating the action that they're performing. The relationship between the Hawaiians and the land where they live the soil. How do they relate to them. Well they have a very strong attachment to the land of course they call themselves children of the land and they mean this very literally because in the community you have the meaning of the sky and earth and everything comes out of that meeting. So they have a strong what we could call an evolutionary view. We don't think of ourselves as so much on a family tree as Hawaiians did but they saw themselves as literally related to animals plants

different lands create different personalities. So if you ask somebody who his family is if you ask him what land it comes from that gives you two fixes for understanding one person. That of course is a very small society would be a lot easier to do that in a small society than say a larger one. In the book you mentioned the difference between two Polynesian cultures the Samoans and the Hawaiians are all originally from one culture but yet the evolution of these two cultures within the Polynesian culture are diverse. Why are they different. They've been both originated from one place. So why are they different Polynesians are very creative people and they're in continual movement creatively and so it's natural and people are isolated over centuries and centuries that they may be moving in different directions. I admire both cultures very much but the Samoan culture is very people oriented very society oriented. The important thing is your relations in the community.

Hawaiians were always a small population and a very big land. And so the context that they thought of themselves and was much more nature as a whole. Do you feel that the the Samoan culture has been able to maintain itself more intact over the centuries. Contrast to the way. Well in many ways they have. They've kept their political system fairly intact. And many of their customs and things of course they didn't have the big influence of non Samoans the Hawaiians had here non-Hawaiians coming in. Hawaiians were on the trade route so they bore the brunt of the foreign press from Polynesia. But I think also the Samoans were marvelous politicians and are and in many ways were able to dichotomize the different sections of their lives in ways that Hawaiians didn't fly for Samoans has a strong contrast between the outside that they show and the inside feelings. Hawaiians had much more of the

sense that the outside should show what the inside is feeling and so that made them somewhat more vulnerable and cut off certain avenues of protection for them that some loans could allow themselves. But I'm always amazed at how much of Hawaiian culture has survived. And when I started religion classes at the university people said well why are you studying Hawaiian religion there is none left. And then of course there was a good deal and with it being a lobbying movement a good deal of that suddenly came to the surface. I think a whole lot of a movement has brought a lot of things into the public that were hidden before and of course that makes me very happy. Do you think that there is a renaissance in going back to the original philosophical principles of the Hawaiian culture as it was centuries ago in a way those principles have never died out. Wine families have kept them alive. The difficulty was recognizing them understanding them and appreciating them because in many ways they were different from holily ways. So the Hawaiian Renascence has told

people there is value in these ideas. And I hope that my book well if you want to establish a kind of continuity between many of the things Hawaiians know now in practice just from their upbringing and their souls and what went on before so they know that they're living in a real cultural continuity of the past. John do you feel that because of the culture of the Hawaiian culture and because of the easygoing fluidity of that culture and even though they're maintaining it now but in lots of ways except as they have been it's kind of part of their own. Do you feel this at all. Well I have a little bit of a different perception I I don't find Hawaiians very uneasy at all. I've yet to meet an easygoing Hawaiian. I find them and if anything a little on the 10 decide that may be just the way they react to that. Dean had a tremendous sensitivity. They have a tremendous sensitivity. They feel things with the

force that we in our culture have lost. How do you feel as a Western trained as a Westerner. We had a Westerner really ever understand the whole way and not the way a Hawaiian would do in my book. I'm always careful to preserve that difference between me my way of looking at things and awful wine in the way people look at them. You had an interesting anecdote from the book a student of yours too. Oh yes. Well it's not in the book but it was afterwards a very good student of mine and she said I couldn't understand the highest things because of course I wasn't Hawaiian and I couldn't understand the basic things like flowers and plants because I hadn't been raised for one but I was pretty good at the middle stuff. I think that's a pretty good perception of my understanding of wine culture. Our guest today is Dr. John Sharlto author of chanty the evil. John thank you very much for being with us. Good to see you again.

And the spectrum was funded in part by the Hawaii State foundation

on culture and the arts. The following program is a production of key h e t in w e

public television. The following program was funded in part by the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts. I. Do. Day. On. The salmon the Hawaiian architecture. Meet with a renowned fiber artist. And witness a Buddhist monk in his rock garden. There are many challenges facing a fiber artist today. Ruth Anderson will tell us how she solves many design questions inherent in how. The peaceful

atmosphere of a rock garden must be planned and maintained by daily practice. We'll learn how this task becomes an integral part of the Zen Buddhism. But first Spectrum discover the single wall houses. And the source of that widespread popularity. Some people think Native Hawaiian architecture began and ended with a thatched hut but that isn't so. We are about to see another example of what the experts call a vernacular architecture. One created and adapted by our people to meet the needs of a particular time an architecture that is suited to our unique climate and geography. Look around you. Drive through any residential area and you will see numerous dwellings in the familiar island of plantation style.

Houses and close by a single wall of one by six of vertical boards with a brace fronting across the middle and a raised floor covered around the outside with lattice work. Approximately one third of all Hawaii's houses are variations of this basic theme. What is a single wall construction and how is it relevant to the Hawaiian experience. To find out we must begin at the source the same source that has done so much to shape what is development and the people sugar less than a mile from the mill stack at Waipahu stands one of the last of the early plantation home sites. It was here and the other old Szoka towns that single wall housing had its origins. Around the turn of the century. More and more contract laborers began arriving

from the Orient with the cane housing them all soon became a growing problem. What was needed was a structure that could be built cheaply and quickly by making the most efficient use of available building materials. At first different materials were used indiscriminately. Lumber was scarce and expensive as it had to be shipped from the Pacific Northwest. At the same time many Japanese newly arrived began building houses for themselves on the plantations that carpenters brought with them considerable skill in woodworking and building techniques. Undeterred by lumber scarcity they simply improvised making a little bit of would go a long way. Architect Ray Maura's comments on these early houses. I have a great admiration for the job he's got and he of

course was hired by the plantation and the job was to build houses for the labor and the plantations. He will go quite wrong roll keeping down the cost. If they don't like to spend the money. And the houses were designed from the aspect the cost. Of the 19:00 single housing began to spread across the. Whole towns. Brian. Yeah Bu why Manalo. Most of the Japanese Chinese and Filipino workers to stay once the terms of that contract were met and married a families

and live the rural Hawaiian ways that now. Most. This house was built in the 1920s the gurt or horizontal strip of wood so distinctive of a single wall House has been internalized. Another feature of these early houses was their exposed plumbing which often formed an elaborate sculpture of pipes and fixtures this early outdoor plumbing was possible for the same reason that the single wall idea works so well in Hawaii. A mild year round climate with no for long periods of adverse weather and no freezing pipes in January either. The advantages of single wall construction were not lost to private commercial builders

and soon the style was copied and approved upon by local architects and contractors. Lewis and Clark was one of the companies that began building single war houses on a large scale. Ray Morris joined losen Cooke as an architect in 1926. Typical house as a board three quarter inch that understands in a wall like this between eight and nine feet tall and you take a long stretch of that side 12 feet of the single border. The joint is a GMG joint. There's a tunnel that goes into a groove with what they call it and it grew to an injury. And that's the joint between them that runs up all the way up through the board that is read here. So to make it look good. The TNG wall was built because it was the cheapest thing that could possibly be done. And structurally the support was

in the same number as the finish of the guns. They're easier to handle the structural pieces of a house require only one method to handle them. Usually the dingy house was built between three and five men working the whole job took three months in the peak years it even took less time. Typically three carpenters were put to work on one house from empty lot to finished product took five days. And in those days before unions the carpenters were also electricians painters and plumbers. I walked around the different offices here. There were about eight architecture all office knows about 200. I love the area. I got a job in each one and I got 15 jobs the first week I was here at a

refusal from learning to cook. So I went back home and told them Just what I'd done. I said I will draw up plans for small houses. It looks to me as though we need small houses. We've got plenty of architects to build expensive one but what's needed here is a house for the man that can't afford it. And I would like you to help that man I know you want to sell your building materials. So you're vitally interested. And I said I will do other plans. You will pay me a salary out of the profit on the lumber and you will help them all your work. So they took up the idea and of course the other problem is money and they worked it out.

So with the banks so that they would take the second mortgage and it worked and rebuilt thousands of housing. You see those houses are built every house up there. Thousands of been. Turning them up 12 a week and that work the whole thing didn't work. And the man that thought he never could have his own home had a home in time. The basic single wall style was refined and added to houses began to lose the pure plantation the straight rectangular floor plan gave way to more sophisticated variations although no single wall construction has witnessed a decline over the years. The style has by no means gone out of style. Many local architects are rediscovering the farm and applying it in new and imaginative ways.

Architect Jim Reinhardt takes us through this three story a while on this house is designed by Steve out in 1970. It's an adaptation of a single what the traditional single White House uses the standard single on materials the TNG Redwood siding the corrugated metal roof. But in this case it has a separate structural frame because of the steep hill side lot. This is a three story high House and the telephone pole and large beam structure becomes the structural element that support supporting the house. The redwood siding keeps out the weather and provides the enclosure the structural frame becomes a decorative part of the House very much a design element. The house is however very much of a Hawaiian House and other in other ways in that the garden the trees the landscape and I become part of the living

space the ventilation the use of the windows allow the house to be very open while still providing the sort of enclosure that when used to protect furniture and belongings this house has a corrugated metal roof which is one of the traditional elements of the single wall House the plantation house. It's used for a number of reasons why it is a good roof at last for a while. There are metal roofs in use which have been for 30 40 years. It's also it reflects the sun quite well. It has got structural strength. But in this particular case the house because it's part of the traditional vocabulary of a single house that was very instrumental in the selection of that roof for this as being part of a single walkout. Here you can see the thickness of the single wall siding that's basically one inch thick. Where is the enclosure for the house.

And you can see that the tongue and groove nature of it here. Climate geography sugar and a little bit of ingenuity contributed to the single loss solution of vernacular architecture and a real Hawaiian natural what I accomplished was to put people into a home which is the thing that I like has to do with the help of lawyers and could we put people into homes that I don't think would have been would have had a hole with their order. They had the floors and cook and you know I was part of that. I was very glad to be it because the one thing I want to do is the people at home coming up on spectrum is a garden of stone here at home don't miss Ruth now and ask him to describe the texture and composition of her fiber art design.

I fell into weaving in the beginning but over the years I discovered that it was a medium that I really enjoyed and I had explored other fields such as ceramics and metal. But I think I just discovered I really like working Fiver's and I love working on a loop. The subject matter or ideas for my weaving comes from many sources. Sometimes just the fibers themselves suggest a kind of weaving perhaps that can be done more successfully than any other or I will go to nature sometimes for forms that can be used and transposed into weaving. But there is no one place that I draw from from. For ideas they come from everywhere.

Planting of a piece is really very exciting. And getting it underway and working out the various parts of the whole piece deciding on your textures your colors and so forth. Then there often comes a time where it is a little dry and you just gotta keep at it even though it's not quite as exciting anymore. And if you get through that then you come to the other side where it's terribly exciting and then when you're ready to take it off alone. The weaving process involves. Preparing your warp which are the threads that are strung on the loom and then getting that warp onto the loom and then actually doing your weaving. This particular kind of weaving is a very free form and a lot of the decisions are made as I go along.

The kinds of colors I will use the types of materials and how I actually work them into the piece it's the decisions are made as I go although I usually work from a simple sketch or a drawing to begin with but this is a much freer kind of weaving and I enjoy it because you do go through this experimental process of decision making and choosing things that you think are more appropriate in particular time. You also have to consider the construction so that if you're using dried plant material such as this piece and here that it's going to stay where you put it. And so there is a construction problem too. This involves not just color and texture. In recent years my husband and I have been collaborating.

He's a retired professor of university and the design department and we found that it was nice to work together with his designs and. I would coordinate and sometimes do the weaving and or one of my associates would do the weaving and I have worked this way on many different projects. Partly it evolved because there were a few too many jobs to do at one time and because weeding is a slow process. It was it seems sensible to get more people involved so that we could create pieces and get them out without too much time elapsing. In the case of the state capital. We worked on pieces there that took about a year to produce but there were 10 people working on them. I had tried to do that on myself. I think that the state would have gotten a little tired waiting for those to be completed. So

it's a large project. You really have to have some assistance. We found that in the case of collaboration that sometimes it is better to limit the styles that you use and you can adapt to the better to certain styles. That is by that I mean there are certain things that I would do. That only I can do and I would do the whole thing myself with maybe a little help and preparation or something. But other than that I have to do all of the weaving because I'm making decisions as I go along and it's very difficult to have anyone else working on it with you. But in the case of the kinds of work work that I do with my husband and my other associates we have settled on two different styles. One is what's known as a flat tapestry and the other is a knotted pile technique which is a technique that was used at the state capital for the two large

wall murals. There are not a pile technique is one where again you don't you do not see your war when you're through and your fill thread. In this case is on a shuttle but usually when you're doing a tapestry or you're doing a knotted pile you simply make little butterflies and hold them in your hand and work with a small unit like this so that you can work in a small area and an auto pilot means that you make knots which are tied to the warp threads. And this is a technique that's used in all kinds of oriental rugs. It's a technique that's been used in countries all over the world and developed in different countries and much the same style the climate in Hawaii is a factor to be considered in weaving because.

Fibers will take up moisture some more than others and it can cause they say a sagging problem or something like that even while your yarns are on the loom. There will be some variation in the tension caused by the difference in the humidity the yarns that the walls that I use are almost all moth proofed a permanent moth proofing which is done at the time the yarns are died. I prefer using rules of this type because you avoid the whole problem of laws which can damage well and weaving and they are a definite problem here in Hawaii. I think that works that are hung in very conditioned areas and which do not

receive direct light would probably last a century if they're well cared for others where they are subjected to weathering and that kind of thing it can only be a few years. Today it seems that many people don't care that much if it's for a hotel or something of that sort they change their work so frequently that the lasting quality is not as important as when as for instance in the state capitol where the works are expected to stay there for years and years. And in that case I think there will be no problem because the materials were used and the the situation within the all in the two chambers. When you work on commissions. It's always a challenge for me

and I really enjoy having certain limitations set up. A space where you know when you're through with your work it already has a home. And you have limitations say with color and texture. The scale is important. But. I find it an exciting way to work to have some limitations. For me in the very beginning. And then work with them and those simply apply in a way as well as. I. Wouldn't think that my style had been compromised because I work on conditions. There are certain techniques and styles that have always been good. I think they always will be and they're appropriate for a certain place. And I think particularly if you're working or

doing work for public buildings I think you have a tremendous responsibility to do something that. Will withstand rigors of time and will be still a good many years later. I think you have a certain responsibility to the. General public. We're going to be using the building. And. Perhaps if I had gone the route of a good number of artists. Who. Have mostly all prepared themselves for a one man exhibitions one person exhibitions I might have worked in a different way but I don't feel I was ever held back at all I really chose to do what I wanted to do. The Reverend Matsuura Soto mentioned Buddhist temple demonstrates how man can be at peace with his natural surroundings. The teachings of Zen.

Have been directly handed down from the historical good. Morning. To. His. Disciples who PETROU through to all present day. In the old Japan. Zen Buddhism. Was historic were allied with the or is. This Warriors was especially develop among Japans military. Known as someone. Such a leap was not unlikely. Zen. Is Always discipline and self control. In Mind. Here in the garden of the schools and mission. We work to provide the peaceful sphere. Revealing. Example. To. The garden helps to represent the unique character of Zen Buddhism. It is the urge to discover nature itself in a place within. Iraq Godan stimulates the mind to see it as any number. As mountains.

Woods. Was. Stone. Garden is a replica of the Rongji garden at Kyoto Japan is stone gone. Shows you part of the world in miniature. These stones represent. The. Surroundings Sam symbolizes the sea. And rake in a circular motion. Close to. The. Stone. In order to give the appearance of.

Rushing to the shore. I read the garden every day. By working out here in the morning. I can gaze at these islands and see. You through your minds. And I move my being in a larger world than are normally seen. Reducing the scale. Of. A few. Stone as the bone of their. This reminds me. That I to me that as. Sure. With a mother. Whether it is burned and scorched by the sun. Drenched for days in a bone for. The Stone continues to endure silently without complete. Every day as I glance at the stone. I realize that my mind just share this attribute of patient and do. I am old

so is a stone. The stone garden strengthens me. To. You. Spectrum was funded in part by the Hawaii State foundation

on culture and the arts