Holehole bushi is a type of folk song sung by Japanese immigrants as they worked on Hawaii's sugar plantations during the late 19th and early 20th century.
Hole Hole is the Hawaiian word for sugar cane leaves, while Bushi (節) is a Japanese word for song.[1] These songs were sung as the workers stripped dead leaves from sugar cane so that it could be processed more efficiently.[2] Many of the workers who stripped cane were women.[3] The songs were often about plantation life, how difficult the work was, relationships between men and women, and reminiscences of their hometowns.[4] The melodies were based on folk songs from their home prefectures, mainly Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, and Kumamoto, among others.[5]
As Japanese immigrants began moving away from the sugar plantations in the 1890s, the Holehole bushi began being sung in teahouses.[4]
These songs were preserved by music teacher Harry Urata, who taught the songs to many of his students.[6]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Hole Hole Bushi". www.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
- ^ "Holehole bushi | Densho Encyclopedia". encyclopedia.densho.org. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
- ^ "PBS HAWAI'I PRESENTS Canefield Songs: Holehole Bushi | PBS Hawai'i". www.pbshawaii.org. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
- ^ a b "American Folksong Project 第２部: 多民族文化としてのアメリカ民謡". www.arc.ritsumei.ac.jp. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
- ^ Shinoda, Satae (2003). "Hole Hole Bushi : A Work Song Composed by the Japanese Immigrants on the Sugar Plantation in Hawaii". Bulletin of Tokyo Kasei University Museum. 8: 113–130.
- ^ Odo, Franklin (2013). Voices from the canefields : folksongs from Japanese immigrant workers in Hawai'i. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-981304-9. OCLC 858945855.