Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 12, 1 December 1986 — Koa Calabashes Prominent Among Ho'okupu [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Koa Calabashes Prominent Among Ho'okupu

By Maxine Mrantz Contributing Writer

A viewing of the ho'okupu or gift giving to eommemorate the 150th birthday of King Kalakaua took plaee in the throne room of Iolani Palaee with a press viewing Nov. 10 and a public viewing Nov. 11. It was part of the week-long activities of the King Kalakaua Jubilee Centennial Celebration hosted by Friends of 'Iolani Palaee. Henry Bartels, the erudite curator of Iolani Palaee, took me into the throne room. On display were the two thrones whieh had been custom designed in Boston and whieh had been given to Bishop Museum some years after annexation. The room reflected the mellow warmth of koa furniture, calabashes and odd-sized bowls.

The multitude of koa calabashes testified to the regard of Kalakaua's subjects who, not knowing what to give a man who had everything, consulted with their sovereign's woodworkers who had the king's pattern registered and could quickly produce the proper bowl. It certainly saved them shopping time and insured that the king had a never-ending supply of bowls.

Under glass were two brilliant diamond pieces belonging to Queen Liliuokalani who bought them when she was Princess Liliuokalani on a visit to England. She was anxious not to appear dowdy and unfashionable to English nobility. One was a butterfly brooch and one a floral spray pin. Two others had been purchased at the time but some time through the years had gotten lost. Also under glass were gold watches, another diamond bracelet and alii feather leis. Near the thrones was a wonderful collection of antique canes.

An impressive gift was from the Russians, sent aboard the cruiser, Rasboyjnik, whieh had no other mission than delivering to the Hawaiian monarch that highest decoration of the Czar, the Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Order of St. Alexander Nevsky. It was an exquisite pieee built around a four-carat ruby. I thought it was a marvel of a display, a living monu-

ment to Hawaii's colorful past. I told that to Curator Bartels and I told him I thought the viewers had seemed to love the exhibit. Bartels said that of course Iolani Palaee meant different things to different people but that to him it symbolized not just a colorful past but the very real achievement of a sovereign country that had

held on to its autonomy in a period of history when few other sovereignties were able to do it. Hawaii — in spite of considerable American influence — had no tangled alliances and was beholden to no power but itself. The presence of the Palaee seemed to say that

Hawaiians could do anything the Europeans could do and do it just as well. It did not demean Hawaiian culture that this was so. What it did do was to put the Hawaiian government on a par with the international community when it eame to conducting state business. Somehow, it seemed necessary to know how to sit a horse, wear a

uniform well, handle a sword with panaehe, dance a quadrille, serve and partake of continental cuisine, set a good table, eat off fine linen, silver and ehina. In this milieu, Kalakaua and his Hawaiian kingdom more than held their own.

lolani Palaee, last month, looking the same as it did 100 years ago in November 1866. The decorations were in honor of the 150th anniversary of King David Kalakaua's birth.