Dennis Kawaharada

Professor, English
Kapi‘olani Community College
Retired: June 2016

email: dennisk@hawaii.edu

Photo Right: Na Pua‘a Kai / Mahoe Mua 1999. Photo by Kapulani Landgraf.

Note: The pages of this website can be found at a more readable and more easily navigated Wordpress website, with larger photos and additional contents, especially on road trips in Japan: Pacific Journeys: Home and Away.

Publications

Print Books

2018. Summer Grasses, Autumn Wind. An annotated and illustrated translation of Bashō's Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Roads of the Deep North). The text comes in a color edition and a black and white edition.

2015. Roads of Oku: Journeys in the Heartland. Essays on Japanese literature, religion, history and culture. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press.


2004. Local Geography: Essays on Multicultural Hawai‘i. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press.


1999. Storied Landscapes: Hawaiian Literature and Place. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press.

Reviews:


Online Books

Edited Works

Translations

  • 2005. “Cane Fire.” Translation of a short story by Naoto Nakashima, with Masako Ikeda. Printed in Bamboo Ridge, Summer 2005. Nakashima’s Hawaii Monogatari is ca ollection of ten stories, including “Cane Fire,” published in Japan in 1936.

Photo Gallery

Mango Trees on Keaʻahala Road c. 1957. See "Mango Trees on Keaʻahala Road."

Oyu Stone Circles, Aomori, Japan, Summer 2005. These stone circles, perhaps marking burials or used for astronomical observations, date from the Jomon period, around 4000 years ago. See Japan Suumer 2005: “Roads of Oku: In the Footsteps of Basho and Beyond.

Winter Sunset over Lake Shinji, December 2006. The sun goddess Amaterasu’s splendid rays giving way to the cloud forms and wintry darkness of the storm-god Susanoo. See Japan Autumn 2006: “Where Gods Alight: Sacred Sites in Western Japan.

Ise Shrine, Spring 2014. The shrine to the sun goddess Amaterasu.

Hane, Ua Huka, Marquesas Islands. See Marquesas 1999: On the Voyaging Canoe Hokule‘a to Six Islands in the Marquesas.

Uxmal. See Yucatan 2000: Mayan Ruins.

Travel Writing–Japan

Note: The webpages from this section have been moved to a new Kapiʻolani Community College server. See Roads of Oku: Travels in Japan

  • 2015 Summer: "Saké-Tasting in Niigata, the Kingdom of Local Brew"
  • 2013 Summer: Far Roads: Finishing Touches" (Hokkaidō and Tōhoku).
  • 2012 Summer: “Travels in the Fifth Moon" (Kantō, Chubu, and Kansai).
  • 2011 Spring: "On the Far Side of Disaster" (Travels in Southern Japan in the aftermath of the Great Tōhoku Earthquake).
  • 2010 Summer: "Legends of the Land (Travels in Tōhoku).
  • 2009 Fall: North Country Fall Colors (Travels in Tōhoku).
  • 2009 Summer: "Summer Delights—Fireflies and Sweet Fish" (Travels in Shikoku and Chugoku).
  • 2008 Spring: "Full Bloom and Festivals" (Sakura Season on the Tōkaidō and Nakasendō).
  • 2008 Winter: "Snow Country" (Winter Travels in Japan. An earlier version was published in Honolulu Star Bulletin, March 9, 2008.)
  • 2007 Summer: "On the Voyaging Canoe Hōkūle‘a, from Uwajima, Shikoku, to Yokohama"
  • 2006 Fall: Where Gods Alight (Sacred Sites in Western Japan.An earlier version was published in Honolulu Advertiser, January 7, 2007.)
  • 2005 Summer: Roads of Oku (Tōhoku and Hokkaidō. An earlier version was published as "Poetry in Motion: Travels in Northern Japan in the Footsteps of Bashō and Beyond" in Honolulu Advertiser, June 26, 2005.)
  • 2004 Spring: "On the Road in Kansai" (Nara, Ise, Kumano, Kyōto, and Tango. An earlier version was published as “On the Road in Kansai: Scenery and Shintō Shrines” in Honolulu Advertiser, June 6, 2004.)

Travel Writing–Pacific

Travel Writing–Americas

Polynesian Voyaging and Navigation

Essays, Introductions, Reviews, Interview


Education and Career

Education

Teaching

  • Kapi‘olani Community College (KCC), faculty in English, 1984-86, 1988-2004, 2010-2016
  • City College of San Francisco, lecturer in English1987-88
  • University of California at Berkeley, lecturer in Asian American Studies,1986-88
  • University of Hawaii, lecturer in English, 1979-84
  • University of Washington, teaching assistant in English, 1977-79

Administration

  • Kapi‘olani Community College, Interim Program Dean, Arts and Sciences and Business and Legal Education, March 2008-February 2010.
  • Kapi‘olani Community College, Interim Program Dean, Emergency Medical Services, Health Sciences, Nursing, Business and Legal Education, and Library and Learning Resources; April 2005-March 2008
  • Honolulu Community College, Interim Program Dean, Arts and Sciences, May 2004-April 2005

Editing and Publshing