King David Kalākaua

David Kalākaua was born on November 16, 1836, succeeded to the throne on February 12, 1874, and ruled with his queen, Kapi‘olani. He was a catalyst for the revival and flowering of Hawaiian intellectual and artistic traditions in the last quarter of the 19th century, an accomplished musician who composed the words of “Hawai‘i Pono‘i,” now the State of Hawaii’s official anthem, and his motto was “Ho‘oulu lāhui” (Let the Hawaiian race flourish). A skilled sailor who loved the sea, he reigned during the building of ‘Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the United States and one of Hawai‘i’s most famous landmarks. Thoroughly Hawaiian but also cosmopolitan, he completed a tour around the world in 1881, including a visit to the United States in 1874, the first monarch in the world to have done so, and his coronation took place on the grounds of ‘Iolani Palace on February 12, 1883. He died on January 20, 1891, and was buried in the Royal Mausoleum in Nu‘uanu Valley on O‘ahu. During his 1881 visit to Japan, he appealed to Emperor Meiji to send immigrants to Hawaii to relieve the shortage of laborers on sugar plantations, leading to the signing of the Japan-Hawaii Labor Convention. From 1885 to 1924, 220,000 Japanese immigrated to Hawaii, and he was honored as the “Father of Japanese Immigration to Hawaii.”

Urban Honolulu, Hawaii · United States