Finding Aid

Scope and Content

The Kikuchi collection comprises approximately 100 linear feet of materials, created or collected by Dr. Kikuchi, and includes primary and secondary sources related to his work. The materials are the result of his personal research and musings, professional projects including those with the Bishop Museum, Kauai Community College, the Archaeology Research Center Hawaii, and others. The material types include:

Materials excavated during archaeology field projects
- Native Hawaiian cultural items inventory and viewing are available by special request only and at faculty discretion.
Archaeology field notes
Field note journals and personal journals
Photo slides and photographs
Archaeology reports and manuscripts
Field note diagrams, drawings, and other papers
Correspondences

The content dates span from circa 1960 to the time of Dr. Kikuchi's passing in 2003. The materials mostly pertain to the geographic region of the Hawaiian islands, with some exceptions, such as the time he spent in Samoa while with the Bishop Museum and the University of Hawaii master's program in archaeology.

Major subject areas covered include, but are not limited to:

Native Hawaiian archaeology
Historic preservation and cultural resource management
Native Hawaiian fishponds, including Dr. Kikuchi's original dissertation notes and manuscripts
Kauai cemeteries
"Russian" forts
Archaeology Research Center of Hawaii field notes and materials
Hawaii historic places
Kauai history and culture

**Please note that the materials available online represent only a small selection of the total collection. The complete inventory of materials can be viewed on the finding aid.**

System of Arrangement

The original order of all materials has been maintained to the fullest extent possible. In some instances, original box-level order has been maintained. Most materials were already filed in folders, of which the original folder level order has been maintained. In instances where the original order wasn't present at the box or folder level, order was imposed based on subject and provenance research demonstrating clear connections between materials.

Materials have been arranged as series and subseries named by subject-relevant headings. Place-based materials have also been arranged by place name, beginning with island and then ahupuaa, where applicable.

Note on Diacritics in the Kikuchi Collection

Diacritics have been omitted in the inventory and in Omeka. The reason for this is to create consistency where there would otherwise be discrepancies. Dr. Kikuchi's own work included a lot of spelling mistakes and inconsistencies in the use of diacritics. Due to the nature of Native Hawaiian and archaeology knowledge both being organized largely by place names, the majority of the Hawaiian words in the Kikuchi collection are place names. Place names can often be broken down in multiple ways, and without knowing the actual moolelo of that place, it is difficult to know the correct spelling. The use of diacritics in place names distracts from the reader's ability to come to their own conclusions based on kaona or moolelo inherent to the word. Additionally, some of the place names in the collection such as fishpond names are arcane and not found in dictionaries. Finally, the batch uploading of spreadsheets into Omeka and using diacritics in other machine-readable contexts creates errors. For these reasons and for the sake of consistency, diacritics have been omitted. While the University of Hawaii system policy on writing Hawaiian language encourages the use of diacritics, it is the archivist's perception at this time that it is best to omit them for this project.

To gain a more concise understanding of Hawaiian words used in the Kikuchi collection, consult all available Hawaiian language dictionaries and resources, including Native Hawaiian community members' perspectives.

The link to the complete finding aid can be found by clicking here.

Use this link for a short tutorial on suggestions on how to research in the Kikuchi Center.