Taste 100-year-old coffee bean varieties still grown at this historic Hawaiian farm

Daisaku Uchida’s Rise from Sugar Fields to Coffee Empire

Daisaku Uchida left his small Japanese village in 1906, just 19 years old with big dreams. He took a ship to Hawaii and spent three tough years on Kaua’i’s sugar fields with thousands of other Japanese workers.

But when his contract ended, Uchida made a bold choice. Instead of going home, he moved to Kona and tried new jobs.

After marrying his cousin Shima in 1912, they leased land from the Greenwell family and grew coffee where Portuguese farmers had given up. Soon, the Uchidas built one of Kona’s most important coffee farms.

Their 1925 farmhouse still stands at the Kona Coffee Living History Farm, where you can walk through the rooms where this immigrant family changed Hawaii’s coffee story forever.

A Young Man Left Japan in Search of a Better Life

Daisaku Uchida left his tiny village of Honmura in Kumamoto, Japan, on September 27, 1906. Only 19 years old, he traveled with nine others from his hometown, hoping to earn money to help his family back home.

He got on the Nihon Maru ship with thousands of other Japanese people heading to Hawaii, South America, and the mainland US. Uchida and his friends barely spoke English and knew almost nothing about American life.

Sugar Plantations Trapped Workers in Harsh Conditions

Between 1868 and 1924, more than 140,000 Japanese workers came to Hawaii with three-year sugar plantation contracts. Uchida worked at Līhuʻe Plantation on Kauaʻi until he finished his three years.

Japanese workers earned about $13 monthly, but bosses took out travel costs from their tiny paychecks.

Plantation life followed strict rules based on where you came from, with different ethnic groups getting different pay for the same work.

Kona Offered an Escape Route for Ambitious Workers

After his contract ended, Uchida moved to Kona and worked several jobs. This far-off area became a safe spot for Japanese folks tired of tough plantation life.

Kona gave them a chance to start small businesses without needing much money to begin.

Many former workers like Uchida stayed in Hawaii instead of going back to Japan because they saw chances to build free lives impossible back home or on the big sugar farms.

Marriage Sealed His Commitment to Hawaiian Life

Uchida married his cousin Shima Maruo in 1912. They both left Japan for Hawaii in the early 1900s, like many other Japanese folks back then.

The couple set down roots in the Kona community and started planning their life together. Their marriage showed they wanted to stay in Hawaii for good rather than just make quick cash and leave.

The Greenwell Family Land Deal Changed Everything

In 1913, Uchida rented land for a coffee farm in South Kona from the well-known Greenwell family. He and Shima started a six-acre coffee farm near Kealakekua town, just seven years after Daisaku first got to Hawaii.

Like most farmers in the area, they likely paid about half their coffee crop as rent to the landowners. This setup let them work for themselves instead of for plantation owners.

Japanese Farmers Took Over When Others Gave Up

By 1910, about 80 percent of coffee farmers in Kona were Japanese, and families ran most farms. Almost all coffee land was farmed by first-generation Japanese folks who rented from landowners.

Japanese farmers stepped in when Portuguese farmers quit their coffee farms because prices were too low. This change made coffee farming in Hawaii mostly a Japanese job by the time Uchida started his farm.

World War I Created a Coffee Boom

World War I started in 1914 and created huge demand for coffee in America. Kona coffee prices shot up as the US Army bought tons for troops.

At the same time, a bad frost killed coffee crops in Brazil, creating even more chances for Hawaiian coffee farms.

Uchida’s farm grew during this time as high prices brought good money to Kona coffee farmers after years of struggle.

The Roaring Twenties Brought Farm Expansion

The 1920s treated coffee farmers well, and in 1925, Uchida doubled his farm to about twelve acres. He hired Utakichi Okimoro to build a bigger house that year.

The family added two redwood water tanks and a bathhouse. The new six-room house fit their growing family of three daughters and two sons.

Three kids were born in the old house, while three more came after they moved into the new home in 1925.

Clever Coffee Processing Methods Improved Efficiency

The farm’s kuridana (cherry-processing mill) and hoshidana (drying platform) were built by Kakume Nakashima in 1926 during the good times.

The kuridana still has its original machines that used gravity to process coffee cherries.

The hoshidana was a smart Kona invention from the 1920s with a raised platform where coffee beans dried in the sun and a movable metal roof to cover beans when rain came.

Economic Ups and Downs Tested Farmers’ Resolve

In 1929, Kona coffee prices crashed because of the Great Depression, putting many coffee farmers in debt.

Through the 1930s, farmers started growing other crops like macadamia nuts alongside coffee to survive the hard times. World War II brought another price jump for Kona coffee starting in 1940 as demand grew again.

The Uchida family structure, with everyone working together, helped them handle these money troubles.

Their Farm Lives On as a Museum Today

Both Daisaku and Shima spent their entire lives on the Kona coffee farm they built together. Shima passed away in 1966, and Daisaku lived to the remarkable age of 99, dying in 1986.

The Uchida family continued working the farm until 1994.

After sitting empty for a while, the Kona Historical Society took over the property and restored it with a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

Today, visitors know it as the Kona Historical Society Living History Farm, Hawaii’s only living museum showing the daily life of coffee farmers from the early 20th century. The U.S. government added it to the National Register of Historic Places on February 9, 1995.

Visiting Kona Coffee Living History Farm (Big Island), Hawaii

The Kona Coffee Living History Farm at 82-6199 Mamalahoa Highway in Captain Cook brings Daisaku Uchida’s story to life.

You’ll pay admission to explore the coffee orchard, kuriba mill, and hoshidana drying platform on your own. Costumed interpreters show traditional Japanese farming methods Uchida used.

The farm opens Tuesday and Friday from 10am to 2pm, with final entry at 1:15pm. You’ll see how this former sugar plantation worker became a coffee pioneer.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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