(waves crashing) Spectrum Hawaii steps up to the counter  and orders the local favorite plate lunch,   a Hawaiʻi institution for 45 years.

Philosopher of the blues Brownie McGhee   teaches us what it means to be an entertainer.

But first, the Zen inspired arts of Japan,   particularly the ink paintings of  Muromachi, are a prelude to serenity.

(instrumental music) The ink painting of Japan has a  long past of historic prominence.

The history of this art rose from the  rustic fundamentals of Zen Buddhist   monks in the 14th century to consummate  professional mastery in the 16th century.

I would say there, there is a great veneration of   Japanese art by the Japanese people.

Right to write down to this very day.

While art scholar Howard Link has thoroughly  researched aspects of ancient Japanese art,   he has also observed aspects of the Japanese.

Visiting a museum on a Sunday, you will find  orderly crowds, orderly crowds, but crowds of   young people going through the museums and looking  at the art.

Some of it is ritual.

To be sure, it   is part of the cultural tradition to do this, but  at the same time, there's no question in my mind   that they truly do love the their arts, all of  their arts, as few nations I've ever encountered.

The Honolulu art Academy's recent Muromachi  exhibit placed on display 30 registered cultural   properties of the Japanese government.

As such, these can never be sold abroad.

This painting exhibition is representative  of the highest quality of painting in Japan,   or in fact, anywhere.

These various paintings,  120 of them collected over a five year period,   come from temples, museums and  private collections throughout Japan.

What is called the Muromachi period occurred when   Japan was a feudal society  and a society of scarcity.

I would say the Muromachi age was a  great a great period for a frugal world,   and that is reflected in everything, the  simplicity of everything, the lack the   refinement in what they had available.

Great wars  brought an age in which they had to do without,   and they did without with such  taste, that's what it's about.

Bodhidharma is considered the founder of  Zen Buddhism.

He once traveled to China   to teach the meaning of Zen, which is meditation.

Zen Buddhism has influenced many  of Japan's arts by informing the   Japanese esthetic principles of the rustic,  the simple, the frugal and the intuitive.

There is Ikebana, or Kinkaku-ji, the Golden  Pavilion of Kyoto a retreat for the third Shogun,   where Muromachi paintings were displayed.

Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion was a retreat   for the eighth Shogun.

This dry landscape  is a replica of Kyoto's ryoan-ji garden.

Japanese Zen is a combination of Chinese Buddhism,   Taoism and Confucianism.

Here's a painting of  the Taoist, immortal with his miraculous toad.

This man is in training.

He will always be in  training to develop, to become, to distinguish   and to know skill, ability and delusion.

He is  a Zen Archer who follows the way of the bow.

Archery is one of the many arts leading  to Zen consciousness and mental serenity.

Konsuhara is a Zen priest from Engaku-ji, Japan,  visiting the Chozen-ji Temple in Kalihi Valley.

He is dressed in ceremonial attire.

He has given  demonstrations of his art at the Honolulu Academy.

By attaining proficiency in the art,  a way of life is gained.

Therefore,   Zen archery is never called a sport.

Rather, it  fosters a return to the natural, original self.

The goal is samadhi, freedom from fear and  insecurity, to give the heart away fearlessly,   repeatedly.

Then to share the fearlessness  with others.

This is the Zen form of charity.

During the Muromachi era, the Zen monastery  was the center of art and learning.

One member   of such a monastic community was the great  Japanese painter Sesshu, whose work is the   centerpiece of the Academy's exhibit.

Here, he  painted Bodhidharma, who was reputed to have   sat facing a wall for nine years.

He's being  approached by Huike, who was offering up his   severed arm to prove his determination  to seek instruction from Bodhidharma.

Sesson, the last great master brought Muromachi  ink painting to its final stage.

In Sesson's   famous monochrome landscape painting, both  movement and stillness are expressed with his   mastery of restraint.

Restraint is a recurrent  feature in the art of calligraphy as practiced   by Jackson Morisawa.

Each movement is made as if  one's life depended on it.

Yet spontaneously.

To   the art scholar, the Muromachi exhibit  is a prestigious visitor to Honolulu.

The important thing is that we were able to bring   to the community a very high measure of  quality, which we not we can't always do.

This house at Chozen- ji is the battlefield  of life and death.

Here, he who aspires to   Zen must die many times with each touch  of the brush, with each draw of the bowl.

Beef stew and rice.

Beef stew and  rice.

Beef stew and rice.

Spaghetti   plate.

Hamburger deluxe.

Beef stew and rice.

Spaghetti plate.

Hamburger deluxe.

One small   saimin.

One large saimin.

One small saimin.

One large saimin.

One deluxe won ton min.

Hamburger steak.

Hamburger steak.

Chili and  rice.

Beef curry stew.

Side order fries.

Hamburger steak.

Chili and rice.

Beef  curry stew.

Side order fries.

Liver and   onions.

Liver and onions.

Liver and  onions, shoyu chicken, beef tomato,   fried egg sandwich, tossed green  salad, tuna sandwich, pork tofu.

Corned beef and cabbage, oxtail soup, with katsu   of the day.

Corned beef and cabbage, oxtail soup,   with katsu of the day.

Sweet sour spareribs,  jello pie ala mode, Portuguese bean soup.

Jumbo shrimp tempura.

Deep fried mahimahi.

Served on top of shredded cabbage.

Served   with macaroni salad.

Butter sauce with lemon  wedges.

Two scoops rice with plenty shoyu.

Saltine crackers, rolls and butter,  ketchup, mustard, relish pepper,   Pepsi Cola, no more Coke.

Steak teriyaki,  teri pork and teri chicken.

Teri burger,   Teri Souza, Terry cloth.

The Thursday special of  the day, chili with frank, chili with crackers,   chili hot dog, chili pepper.

Chilly,  chilly, chilly weather at the beach.

Home bento lunch.

Home bento lunch.

Home  bento lunch.

Hawaiian plate.

Hawaiian plate.

Hawaiian plate.

Hawaiian plate.

Beef stew and  rice.

Beef stew and rice.

Beef stew and rice.

Ah, the plate lunch a unique culinary  experience endemic to these islands.

And like much about Hawaiʻi, the plate  lunch is a blend of ethnic tastes.

It   got its start in World War Two when fleets  of lunch wagons similar to these appeared   on the scene to feed hungry wartime  workers who toiled around the clock.

These early lunchtime entrepreneurs modeled  their bill of fare on the Japanese bento,   or cold box lunch, but they added one significant  improvement.

Their offerings were hot,   home cooked meals.

Dave's Plate Lunch wagon has  been serving island customers for over a decade.

They moved to the Sandy Beach  location seven years ago,   and they've got the whole plate lunch  business down to a fine science.

(instrumental music) 9:00am just 15 minutes after  arriving at their location,   and Dave's is open for business.

But their  work day started long ago in their home at   4:00am preparing the day's entrees.

And  quitting time doesn't roll around until   5:00pm.

It's no wonder there's only  one way for Dave to get good help.

That's all my, my kids in there and everything in  the family.

If we was hired, we'd hired people,   you no can.

Cannot make them stay  out here that long, for many years.

With dozens of entrees crammed into  every nook and cranny of the lunch wagon,   Dave's will sell some 50  to 75 plate lunches a day,   four days a week, not to mention countless  sodas, sandwiches, candy bars and shave ice.

$3.00.

And your plate lunch comes out in   that window.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ah, so nice.

Very good.

In 1977 Grace traded in her lunch wagon for  this plate lunch diner on Beretania Street.

It was a good move, for in 1984, Grace's added  this location on Alakea Street and inside,   lunchtime is nothing short of organized  madness with 300 plate lunches,   the typical midday volume.

That's three  per minute with chicken katsu the big   seller.

Controlling all this chaos is manager  Michael Hasegawa, an eight-year veteran of   the plate lunch campaigns.

And who better  to tell us about this lunchtime favorite?

Well, a plate lunch, I would say, like it has  to come with two scoops of rice, at least two   scoops of rice and macaroni salad.

And chow fun  and kimchi, you know, and plus your regular food.

It's this regular food that sets the  plate lunch apart.

Or just as Hawaiʻi is   a melting pot of ethnic races, the plate  lunch is a melting pot of ethnic taste,   lending new credence to that old  saying, you are what you eat?

Well, we have Japanese food like teriyaki, beef  and pork, teriyaki beef and pork, shrimp tempura,   chicken katsu.

Also, we have Hawaiian plate, and  we offer a kalua pig too.

And Filipino food like   chicken adobo and pork adobo.

And we also  have Korean food.

They have kalbi short   ribs and a boneless Korean style chicken.

And  Chinese food, such as we have a chicken salad.

Also have sweet sour spare ribs and oyster  sauce chicken.

And we even have Haole food   like roast turkey and stuffed cabbage and Swiss  steak and all types of food we have over here.

And over the years, what has  evolved is an indigenous hybrid   called the plate lunch with two scoops of rice,   the common denominator of the species.

And so it  is that a mixed plate of sweet sour spare ribs,   chicken katsu and kalua pig with a side order of  kimchi becomes a microcosm of Hawaiʻi, the state.

The late 70s brought the mainland fast  food franchises eager to do battle with   the humble plate lunch.

Indicative of local  loyalty, the plate lunch place has survived   and even flourished in the face of this  high-powered corporate competition.

In fact,   growth patterns have leveled off for the  mainland fast food outlets, while the plate   lunch chains keep adding bigger and better  locations like this, the Vineyard Zippy's,   their 15th store and a pinnacle of plate  lunch decor complete with valet parking.

(instrumental music) Outside, neon has replaced  the cardboard display sign,   and inside the plate lunch has found a home to  rival a trendiest novel cuisine establishment.

(instrumental music) Ah, the plate lunch.

In 45 years of  existence, it never looked so good.

(instrumental music) The last bells rung for the day, and at a time  when most students can't wait to get off campus,   you'll find 16-year-old Chung Siu Chow busy in the  ceramics workshop.

This is his third major piece.

Seeing all those beautiful things in life, and  you transform transfer those beautiful things   in life into drawings or sculptures.

That's what I believe in as an artist.

(instrumental music) Some ideas just pop out my head, like from dreams.

(instrumental music) It gives me a natural high you know, a natural  high feeling that you accomplish something   with your own hands and with your own this,   just like your own creation, you’re  a god or something, this creator.

(instrumental music) I going to have to write home to some friends.

When 72-year-old, legendary entertainer and  philosopher of the blues, Brownie McGhee was   asked to reflect upon his approach to music, he  was quoted as saying, I know what I am inside.

I'm an honest to God, true storyteller, and  I use my guitar to help me along my way.

I lived through the strolling 20s.

I  coped with the dirty 30s.

Naughty 40s,   I looked right and I looked left.

Nifty  50s, I took a chance on life.

I got married,   started a family.

Dicty 60s, I began to realize  the world was in a bad condition.

Heavenly 70s,   I made it.

I'm here.

The hateful 80s.

I  don't know what's going to but I'm a product.

And I have songs from the naughty 40s until now.

People identify me as a musician, and I tell them   I know what I am, but I am to people what they  think I am.

I am an entertainer.

I was born an   entertainer because I use my guitar and my piano  and my horn to tell to substantiate my stories,   to keep them from getting bored.

I want to play  what I feel, and I feel what I play.

If you ask   me to play for you, I'm involved.

It's Brownie  McGhee, not you.

That's why I don't back people   up with my guitar, because I only play Brownie.

And when I'm singing, I'm singing Brownie.

If a   musician plays what you hand him, because it's  read, and my music is to be played not read.

Please, please, please, please  don't turn around and die.

My form is the most important thing in  the world, but the content that went into   my songs is my environment, my happenings, my  surroundings, my persecutions, my joys and my   sorrows.

Tear drops caused these wrinkles you see  in my face, if you can see them, where they still   roll down.

Teardrops caused those but now I cry  inwardly.

So, I've outlived the wrinkles and the   contents that goes in my songs.

I know it.

Nobody  else don't know.

I lived it.

I don't imagine it.

Why I tell you that I was hungry when I  wasn't hungry?

Be lying.

Why I tell you that   I tell you that I was broke when I wasn't broke  because I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my   mouth.

Why did I tell you that I had my mother and  father.

They separated when I was five.

I'm from a   broken home.

Tell it like it is now, my mother  and father didn't get along.

They were stupid.

I wish I only knew what separated them, but  I didn't let it rub off on me to see if my   mother and father would have lived.

I wouldn't  have been in this condition.

I'm in better   condition now.

I didn't know, but I do know,  man, something was wrong with family.

Wasn't me.

So, I was born with the blues.

When I  got married, I lived with it and I got   a beautiful family.

I lost my wife 10 years  ago.

I tried that too.

I lived with her 30   years and I wrote about those things,  and that will be the title of my book,   Born and Living with the Blues.

The  blues bought everything I got.

I got   a nice home.

I got me some cars.

They all  paid for.

I ain't rich, but I'm happy.

Two legs, two arms, two eyes.

People stare  at me as I go by.

Reason is I don't know.

Well, it happens everywhere I go, and I  wonder why, Lord, please tell me, why.

Blues is truth.

It's a living thing.

It's my life,   my love, my joy, my all.

That's all  it was.

Put that on my tombstone.

That's the biggest question.

Why?

I don't  know.

I'm not a politician.

Not religious.

Just a question.

Well, I don't know now, but  I'll find out someday, someday by my.

People   that talk about this and that I'm gonna  tell you this from under my hat.

Lord,   the way it is, I don't know.

Well, it happens  everywhere Brownie goes.

And I wonder why, Lord.

I have a formula for what I'm  doing.

If I keep that in my foot,   I quit.

And I was told when I was  young that string instruments was the   devil works.

Religious fanatics that  come out of that part of the world.

Fine by, fine by, fine by.

Yeah.

My father used to talk to me when I  was young and I couldn't understand   him as I was saying.

And when I got  big enough to talk to him, and I said,   why he always say things.

What do I know  about the graveyard holding secrets that   I'd never know.

I couldn't understand that,  and I wrote it down, because Blues is truth,   and I call it and I started off like this,  and I'm talking to him, and I get involved.

My father, my father said these words.

Followed me  for so many years.

Yes.

He said, believe half you   see son and not a damn thing that you hear?

I say,  why, daddy?

He said, there's a many broken heart   son, that never sheds no tears.

I have to tell me  some more.

He says, it takes rocks and digs rocks   and gravel.

Son to me to make a solid road.

Yes, yes.

He says, everything that shines on   don't you know, we can't be told why, and to  go.

He said, the graveyard holds secrets son,   boy that will never be told.

I didn't understand  it.

I asked for some more information.

He says, the long son, the longer the road,  the short well, the short of a turn.

Yes,   yes.

He said, now I want to tell you something why  you young boy.

You'll never grow too old to learn   why.

This is what he said to me.

He says, old  cold will kindle love and hate son.

And they will   light up and slowly begin to burn.

Tell me the  truth.

What are you talking about Daddy?

He says,   if you want son, if you want to be loved,  here's what you got you got to do, yes,   yes.

He said you got to love somebody if you want  somebody to love you.

That's the truth.

I know   it.

But he says, don't never let your right  hand, son, know what your left hand do.

Oh,   my Lord, blues is true my father's words  and I live by that.

Better believe it.

You know, the blues is a mother.

Don't forget  it brother.

Having sex with the world a long   time.

It's just been underestimated because  it was segregated.

But now the story must be   told.

You know, the blues had a baby.

The whole  world was calling rock n roll.

Ain’t that the   truth?

From Nancy Smith to Janis Joplin, blues  has been a poppin’.

Lady D, she sang them too.

California to Japan so many foreign lands.

That's the way story goes.

Listen to me.

Blues had a baby.

The whole world's calling  rock n roll.

Ain’t that the truth?

What'd you   say McGhee?

Blues is a mother.

Don't forget it  brother.

Having sex with a long time.

It's just   been underestimated, causing the segregated  without the story must be told.

You know,   the blues had a baby the the whole world  called rock n roll.

Now listen, everybody,   don't get excited.

It ain’t no secret.

Ain’t no  secret anymore.

Brownie McGhee's not ashamed.