Credit Odo
Earthy Japanese singing is a big part of Bon Dance celebrations across the state right now, with its growly or even shrill sounds urging the dancers on. Hawai‘i’s original Japanese immigrants sang in the cane fields as they worked; the songs they sang were called "hole hole bushi." HPR’sNoeTanigawa found they paint a vivid picture of life on the plantations.
Franklin Odo’s book, “Voices from the Cane Fields: Folksongs from Japanese Workers in Hawai‘i”, is available now from your favorite bookseller. Here is the mini site for the book.
See a performance of hole hole bushi by Allison Arakawa at Japanese American National Museum
