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The following program is a production of key HEG in Honolulu Hawaii Public Television. The following program is made possible by grants from the state foundation on culture and the arts and Chevron USA. In Hawaii. Spectrum. Of entertainment meaning song and. Dance have now been studied and performed at the campus.
But first we're joined by the. Author to make. Material.
Have been released from the material. Done in a number. Shortened and put into the paper.
Bond together to form a sheet of paper in the presence of water. The formulation of the important step that had preceded it. I'm adding to the vat of suspension. I'm working with this in a way that's similar to Japanese techniques. The. Process of forming a simple one. It's simply a matter of taking your part of this mixture of fiber and water. The water will drain through and that matter surface of the moon.
This technique of forming that's being modified. Is characterized by the use of long fibers. The formation is put into the vats of those suspended and don't sit down at the bottom to dip into the times without disturbing the fiber that's already on the surface. The process of transferring the material from the surface. Is called. A transfer process. That allows me to make another sheet of paper. From white to cream and light brown fibers can also be
colored. Dyed fabric and then formed. Into a beater. Or European style sheet. Or contrast to. An arm. To align them and allow the water to drink. And then we are ready to coach the sheep. That I make a special paper it will have a pattern on it formed with two different colors of pulp. The second color is. A. Banana relative that comes to us from the Philippines and it also has been dyed. Green colored fiber will go directly on top of the red fiber. And the resulting paper will have green stripes on the ground.
Depending on which. Is a little bit of water in it. And it's not. Working with concern and that. When we begin to. Consider. Whether comes from the plant. And how we prepare it.
And I could. Experiment.
With a number of those. This on not tryna drawn to the source. The source of Kabuki springs
from an ancient Japanese tradition. Here at the Montauk campus. University students take their first exciting step into the disciplined pageantry of Kabuki to write. Cup of tea is a big form of theatre highly theatrical spectacular costumes young scene with special effects. It's a combination of. Dance drama and indeed cobbled Japanese means song dance skill which makes it a very different kind of the theatrical one finds in the West. The emphasis to be on the plot the character and the ideas and a couple key is a
performance kind of theatre. And because of the local population having so many people of Japanese ancestry this is very much a part of our culture here in Hawaii. One of the reasons that we do come key is because it is such a spectacular form of theater. Another reason is because geographically we are located in a place on earth where we can do this kind of thing. We have the largest Asian theater program. Anywhere. World. Cup began in Japan and I am detainment. So I know that you know that you need to ask you you bitch and we should try and lead me. On like the most sedate and aristocratic you know theater had took on characteristics of its audience. He. Is not aristocratic at all just popular. It's it's sometimes vulgar It's goofy it's Awadi it's highly goes goes out it just reaches
out and shakes you. It does everything it can to excite you in a theatrical way. For the Japanese kabuki actor traditions his teacher. To be a kabuki star one must be literally born into it. One must be a male. Women were banned from the state in sixteen forty nine when they used their performances solicitation even to this day female roles are played by men skilled in portraying women. For the young boy aspiring to be a kabuki actor. The training comes early and with great discipline. You begin your training when you're five years old. In Japan you must learn Japanese dance you must learn all the forms of classical chanting and music and you must master all of the uses before you can become a good actor. And when you learn your rules you learn them from your father or your uncle or whoever is the head of your family. And he's teaching them and you learn them from
the outside. You don't sit around and say you know what is this character thinking about or how does it feel or anything of that kind. No your father says OK in this role you sit at this word your voice goes up at that point you cross your eye in this. Your hands are carried this way or whatever the make up is this the costume is this everything is fixed by tradition. It's only when you arrive at the summit of your career say when you're 50 or 60 then you might make some changes. And if you're great enough of course the changes you make become new traditions. You can learn the rudiments of the dramatic form regardless of age sex or ancestry. Dr. Leonard Pronk is a visiting professor from Pavano College in California. He was the first non-Japanese study at the National Theatre of Japan. He is now in Hawaii for a semester offering classes such as this one in
Japanese movement. Movement is all quite stylized. There are specific ways of moving to represent a woman or a man or a very delicate princess or a more mature woman or an old lady or a comic woman a very strong or a very refined handsome young man. There are many different ways of moving course in Japan the actor must learn all of these kinds of movements if he normally plays men's parts. He also must learn to play women's parts as well. In the training course we teach them all of these various kinds of movement. But in the performance each person is playing only one role and we concentrate on those roles. Oh my. The.
Stories. I need for you to game. The student Riyad in Weston FIFA has to adapt to the stylization and so does the student playing Japanese music for the first time. Jada teaches at the Music Department of the university. Where students are learning how to play Japanese instruments and also a new way to bring life and cow time. Into. The kind of. Shoes. I have us myself to you or you. So I'll only miss it. And stop. And then it's something like this. So how did
this do then first they have to get used to this kind of cue. And then chairman of the drama directed what is now considered the first authentic performance to be held outside of Japan production not every year sometimes three or four years production because they are. Huge indeed a kabuki performance demand drama data and music and students faculty and staff costume
makeup sets and lights all are carefully created for the most authentic production possible such as for this bill our comedy and drama. The first play presented in English is a comedy called fishing for a wife. It's a blue comedy that derives from Q again. In our short comic pieces from the Middle Ages that were and still are performed as a kind of comic interlude in a more serious note program. And these are often involved. Oh the weaknesses in the pretensions of everybody. We have universal appeal because even though many of the written five and six hundred years ago they're still about things that all of us are doing today fishing for a wife is a story about a minority of them who live when their mates and the comic results. Do you know.
Why. The second you say demons than demonstrates the bookie's nature to feel good against evil. It has been written by Dr. Frankel for Western audiences in English forward in the style of the feeling as I go. I don't look amused roughhouse it's bigger than life or the costume rigs are big good and with a very sexy kind of makeup I mean it's cool I do it and so it's rather grotesque and very very picturesque and everything is magnified. What's bigger than life in the demon's hands are summarized by a demon and subsequently cuts off the feeling's hand is advised by a sage to put the hand into a sacred chest and lock his gates. The seven day however to the plane his hand but Damon takes on disguises of a young woman and then an old data to gain entry into the Lord's home. And.
The fight and I return. I. Have two of mine. See you there in the play The demon is capable of changing his body to a woman who's this requires a quick change of costume backstage of chemo nose pads wigs and makeup costumer Sandra finance her student dresses have been practicing for a week. OK.
Your son. Grows. Up on the speed of this folks. This is fast to it doesn't. It Alone. This. Make up is another tradition of Kabuki Rosemary. Bring a note and apply them a cup before taking their places in the demons. And it's the discipline. I think. That will benefit the Western actor from others. I think it's. Forcing yourself to do. Things in a particular way. We don't get quite
that same training in western. Theatre. I'm more interested in the psychological implications why am I doing this and. Why am I walking across this floor. BROOKY I think it's a lot more. You do it. It's a drama student I find the stuff. The stylization. It's much more concrete. And we have no room for that. Whereas in western makeup you can change a life here and this stuff is very the eyebrow will be. So I brought a lot of physics needed that way. In terms of the setting I think it's that we're trying to create the the feeling of the Japanese theater. Our source materials are all Japanese research going back to the Japanese theater. Hopefully the audience coming in to Kennedy will perhaps think they're in Japan. The scenery will be styled as it were done in the National Theatre of
Japan. Musicians boxes on either side of the stage to the painting techniques are much more Japanese than Western style. The lighting is authentic also the lighting Unlike Western lighting is almost all white lights we want no shadows because the audience is there to see the performance it's not like going to a lot of operas where you can hardly see what's going on because there's so much atmospheric lighting everything is blue or you can't even see what's going on the stage. Here the actor is a virtuoso and you want to see everything he does. What the new discipline.
Within this quest. To balance. The demands. Of the senses. Join us again on that. The preceding program has been made possible by grants from Chevron USA
in Hawaii and the state foundation on culture and the arts. The following program is a production of K. Chichi in one of the two
public television. The following program is made possible by grants from the state foundation on culture and the arts and Chevron USA. In Hawaii. You know the Hawaiian so. One was nor the lack. The deep connections between place. And history. The Chandan voice you are hearing celebrates these understand.
Nowhere is the expressive time in the land of one's birth. More apparent than with a my. Native. Mary Abigail. I don't know. Clearly old lady. Mary is Hawaii's foremost a living cultural authority linguist storyteller composer translator genealogist teacher and kumu hula or hula master. Throughout her lifetime given a has authored or coauthored some 52 books and articles composed over 100 in 50 songs and chants and received numerous awards and degrees given his stewardship of Hawaiian culture is reflected in her splendor this name itself the Hawaiian Milli or poem as she herself translates it
the rosy glow in the sky made by her in the bosom of. The earth consuming the crimson they who know the name of Venice to heritages and America and the Hawaiian part of the name tells of Venice and says I had a what is most awesome goddess of the volcano. Conoco oily Gauvin as full blooded Hawaiian mother was descended from a sacred blind of Kahuna or priests of Venice English names were given by her New England father Henry Nathaniel Wigan had voyage to the Pacific in 1892 from Salem Massachusetts. In this rare turn of the century portrait of the Venice Family is gathered on the lanai of their beguiling parents. On the upper right. And that six year old governor in the chair with her pen go now and see your
body. Just say that one is a child of cut who is the highest complement among ourselves. Vanna has written here. All people are of one or one or extended family. The district of cocoa on the island of Hawaii this vast land with its lava coasts and so majestic slopes of Mount the Lord is the most forbidding place this remote land of teens with visible symbols of its primordial convent his roots among the stupendous earth drama of eruptions fishers and flannel. This is the magnificent texture of her early sense of her. If you tell Kevin a story we journeyed there with two women we have deeply
shared given his reverence for Hawaiian culture. I've written to your friend. And it's a travelogue. Of the different places of interest to visit. Patients given his her or adopted daughter and Eleanor Williamson given his long time researchers just like sisters. Pat in L.A. you have a 30 year relationship centered around their work with carbon. But what he bishop you see as just a friendly warning when you go along the beaches of. It is. Yes to the great shark attack command.
And I came in 1959. Uncle Willy was driving along this roadway and Kevin I looked my tears started to run down her are used her face. She said Not a word. It was only later that I found out from her. She's very tough. But she came back and Uncle Willie and she talked about the various. Mountain would just come back from porno and she had been recorded with only one annoyed. They had a marvelous time. Both of them Ridley. They both She loved reading and they were always taunting each other and they were skilled he was skilled she was skilled. Not once did she ever say why Lol I give up what he said. I you know I don't understand.
They just batting Riddle's back and forth. I wonder who else wheedles nowadays. Ireland heard it for years. Really is a great herbal market. You could have been without a visit to come. And see. That. I'm. Kind. Of at the back of. This is that we can see all of you. From all the way. This is what it was on a date just like this. It was quite windy and dry and dusty the first year with Corona. Wrapped her head up and
took an US car. So we came here and the dust was blowing. Hard. Ballpark. Yells at her like this and we looked out there was just covered with dust. She said Now you know why I did that. And she said we had to come to see this famous famous chants of I wonder where and opine I think right after the dry trick to play him good always find out why and hospitality on the road at the house of her friend beguiling uncle. I remember one early morning in July of 1959
and I were at home NYU. Then I gently await. Me. To follow her to the front. She gestured East at the brilliant sunlight. AS. The sky was acquiring a rosy glow. I know my name she said. I am named for that role you see. Given his role as cultural Guardian seemed a sacrament at birth. Respecting ancient Hawaiian custom her generous Holy Father allowed Cavender to be given in one night adoption to her grandmother not evil I know. It was this commanding woman descended from the priestly lions of the gods alone know and transmitted their own traditions. Rituals and religious mysteries to. Us. Were. Until
Polis death when convent was six the pair lived in a little house like this near her parents in Aleppo who as been a helly or favored child the venta would serve as keeper of the family history and law. I spoke only Hawaiian to the keiki child transmitting her knowledge as a healing Kahuna and sharing her great talents in the art of Hula. Imagine the young Katrina hanging on to every trembling bird of PL I is a cow. But the family's ancient burial tradition. At the death of a coven his great grandmother the evil one the family embarked on a song her middle like Journey to the fiery pits of the bog in the manner prescribed by peeling. The bones were broken then whizzed and wrapped in red and black cup of bark and tossed into the burning called their room accompanied by prayers and chance.
In the early 1900s. The Wiggins moved on a moving van up along with other Hawaiian and Chinese girls attended missionary school. Given I was in the class of 1910 you had no idea how it was seminary in monoid Valley mid-Pacific Institute as was the custom pupils were taught using the Bible as text and all classes were in English. All those speaking Hawaiian laws forbid it. But then a delighted reciting the old stories to her friends in Hawaii. Her reputation as a skilled interpreter of her people's language began to grow in 1937. Cavender began what would be a productive 25 year relationship with Bishop Museum. In this very office over five decades ago the Venda began her artful recording and translating of the Hawaiian materials
in 1935 the 40 year old convent made her first official field trip for the museum. Govind has served as translator for anthropologist as handy and his wife Elizabeth. The adventurism doctor handy had met his soulmate in coven and the pair began a remarkable collaboration that summer event in the hand and said I want to know the ways of the old Hawaiian when Kevin is home island of Hawaii. They crisscrossed the sun scorched desert of CO. INTERVIEWER Why do many of the work of and his relatives. At night in the isolated country. The Handy's bunked in the dusty vehicle. Welcome Venice snuggled in a tiny cot tent beside the car. For the first time. The traditions of the Hawaiians had been
interpreted in their own language style and understanding. On her many field trips to Vienna proved to be an expert scholar herself. She began to accumulate hundreds of Hawaiian words idioms and Proverbs. She wrote on you know some things like this. It's a paper and this is a man on the world and I can't throw it away because she's got. Notes there. She'd tear out little scraps of paper and she wrote on flat so. So if one picked this up this way one would say well this is just a bit of rubbish you throw it out. But we have to open everything out because she has all her precious notes there. I think one of the primary reasons that she was interested in getting this dictionary done is that. She. Working here at the museum she had done lots of translations. She had always
said that the material here in this library. It would take at least two of her lifetimes to make a dent in what was here. So she felt that the translators of the future would need something like this. And this is the finished product. And she worked on it on the dictionary with Dr. Elbert who was once her pupil. She taught him why and given his passionate determination to preserve the Hawaiian language was realized in 1957. I felt that it was really her addiction that I had that I was more or less a technician. She was very clever. Her knowledge of English was wonderful and she was so willing to cooperate with holidays or with anybody. People were constantly calling her up for questions. She had to name.
Almost anything. Lots of children lots of streets. She said she had never named a pig. I think she wanted to. She was full of poetry and we failed the dictionary with quotations from songs and chants and sayings. She was so I head over time was she saw what people would be interested in a generation or two later. I just can't get over my admiration for her and for the extreme with read of her interests and capabilities and talents. Given his role of teacher was not limited to her work at the museum
the bustling home life was itself a laboratory in Hawaii. Just as people I had taught then taught her to her patients and later her natural daughter had all the skills crafts and of her. I grew up with the. Was always part of our family. We would work together during the chanting and the drumming. I did the dancing that we were in the evenings we would all gather together her Qur'an and her mother. They would reminisce tells stories so there each one was growing up there and then interspersed with that would be some dances or chanting.
In this 1935 film given his mother 100 demonstrates Hawaiian string as a vendor performs a sitting. I know. That her fondness for children and in teaching them was. Perpetuating Hawaiian culture. Just as her grandmother had taught her she taught them and riddles in Hawaiian dances with little sticks and pebbles and she also taught them to do string figures. She composed many many songs for children.
She did love children. Taylor used to come and pick to run that out. And that they would go for. The rides. And. What they were not to know what she was there and was inspired to write a song. So when she got home. She brought her paper and pencil out. And. Started to. Post the song. That's how. I know him to be. A good looking guy. Technology soon provided Cavender with a fifty two with which to preserve
the lively interviews she conducted with Hawaii. The tape recorder. I am now knowledge with and Chris did in Hawaii they're thinking why some of their behavior. I thought one of the old and tell me of the new and together we learn I like to learn. Even if I am over three. Come on I would carry. A three ring binder like this on our field trips. She would never pick up a pen so while she was recording she would be. She was always interested in what they were saying. And only after we left the people and she opened her binder and jot down notes from what had occurred.
I said Listen she'd look at me and I went I said Well something's happening here. And what she did was. Tap my knee. Clinically be quiet and I did what she was charging doing recording just to to get the opinions and the thoughts of others. I'm. The combination of could end his life long scholarly dedication to Hawaii is symbolized by the recent publication of her new book. Hawaiian and political sea. The volume was published by the museum press aided with a grant from the office of Hawaii. Elie Williamson served as senior editor. Striking Prince artist to. Illustrate some of the book.
This one. Has the right. To make good boy Terrell. The free work in unison with the point. Keep both. Do good work. The book is perhaps the loveliest Testament ever made to the Hawaiian spirit. Come on to New York on the kalima overhangs park. Given his sparkling interpretation of Hawaiian her skill and ciphering the metaphoric deep blue layered shadows of Hawaiian speech. How did I not make this book A Gift of I don't know how to wait.
Now I know the book's publication was celebrated with a glorious tribute to Kobe in the regal Hawaiian Hall of Bishop Museum. To your No. Elizabeth what are you. Waiting to see so many people gathered to pay tribute to come back. And. Tell. Their own. Experiences with this one. Well. I do and I want to. I want to be the one with them. But the people who did it with such
love that the feeling was something good. It's hard to describe people who are so beautiful and everybody gave so lovingly. I first met when I was very very messed up in this love football. I saw first saw knowledgeable in things a wire and saw saw there which you with us. We were I was greatly enriched when I heard her sing. Right to her but I went to see her next day.
I took her friends had brought on her porch and I placed some on her name. She looked at me. And I put this book. Down. In front of her and she well I love Mary. Come on. Put. Me in here. You know. I just enjoyed the tribute from others but to her going to see her now. We need. That title. You need. So she. Helped but. It started to turn the pages and. She got to the section. 8. You. Hear this one. She said I cannot come come no one planting a
banana. And she started. To read the sword a little. You know very short ones like a cow. Translate. Yes. And she went on sometimes she missed a word I just so I didn't and she followed. And she said this is a. Book. Why I said that. That evening I enjoyed I came on but I had to it that day when I wasn't really my tears ran on checked. She was holding something. For. Her Baby. Because I know my mother language. I've enjoyed it a lot with other Polynesian who did our likenesses and now differences and because I know my job that I can
explain a bit of what we have had here and love and what we feel with pain. Knowledge to me is like OK I'm with you. The preceding program has been made possible by grants from Chevron USA
in Hawaii and the state foundation on culture and the arts.
Series
Spectrum Hawaii
Episode Number
035
Episode Number
036
Episode
Mary Kawena Pukui: Restrospective
Producing Organization
KHET
PBS Hawaii
Contributing Organization
PBS Hawaii (Honolulu, Hawaii)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/225-913n63dx
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/225-913n63dx).
Description
Episode Description
The first segment The Art of Paper Making With Marcia Morse explores the history and process of paper making. Marcia Morse of Temari, the center for Asian and Pacific Fiber Arts, demonstrates the process. The second segment explores Kabuki, the ancient method of Japanese entertainment being studied and performed at the University of Hawaii Manoa. Several professors are interviewed about the courses on movement, music, and dance offered for Kabuki performers, as well as, the set design, costume design, and makeup required for the performance.
Episode Description
This episode explores the life and legacy of Hawaii's cultural guardian, Mary Kawena Pukui. The episode covers her early life, family history, and work to translate Hawaiian culture. Her adopted daughter, Eleanor Williamson, and research assistant, Patience Namaka Bacon, talk about her research and work at the Bishop Museum. The episode concludes with the celebration of the publication of her book Oleo No-Eau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings.
Episode Description
This item is part of the Pacific Islanders section of the AAPI special collection.
Created Date
1984-05-02
Created Date
1984-04-19
Asset type
Episode
Genres
Documentary
Topics
Music
Performing Arts
History
Local Communities
Crafts
Dance
Theater
Rights
A Production of Hawaii Public Television, Copyright, 1984, all rights reserved
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:59:24
Embed Code
Copy and paste this HTML to include AAPB content on your blog or webpage.
Credits
Associate Producer: Barnes, William
Director: Richards, Holly
Editor: Coll, Edward
Executive Producer: Martin, Nino J.
Interviewee: Langhans, Edward
Interviewee: Pronco, Leonard
Interviewee: Yamada, Chie
Interviewee: Boyd, Mark
Interviewee: Williamson, Eleanor
Interviewee: Bacon, Namaka, Patience
Interviewee: Elbert, Samual
Narrator: Wilder, Kinau
Narrator: Wong, Ka, Upena
Performer: Kaiwa, Bill
Producer: Caraway, Nancie
Producing Organization: KHET
Producing Organization: PBS Hawaii
AAPB Contributor Holdings
PBS Hawaii (KHET)
Identifier: 1495.0 (KHET)
Format: Betacam: SP
Generation: Dub
Duration: 01:00:00?
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
Citations
Chicago: “Spectrum Hawaii; Mary Kawena Pukui: Restrospective,” 1984-05-02, PBS Hawaii, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 16, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-225-913n63dx.
MLA: “Spectrum Hawaii; Mary Kawena Pukui: Restrospective.” 1984-05-02. PBS Hawaii, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 16, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-225-913n63dx>.
APA: Spectrum Hawaii; Mary Kawena Pukui: Restrospective. Boston, MA: PBS Hawaii, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-225-913n63dx