Temple figure of war god Ku-ka’ili-moku

This large figure probably represents Ku-ka’ili-moko, one of the manifestations of Ku, the Hawaiian god of war. It was made for and erected by King Kamehameha I, unifier of the Hawaiian Islands at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Kamehameha built a number of temples to his god, Ku-ka'ili-moku ('Ku, the snatcher of land'), in the Kona district of Hawai'i, seeking the god's support in his further military ambitions. The figure is likely to have been a subsidiary image in the most sacred part of one of these temples: not so much a representation of the god as a vehicle for the god to enter.

The figure is characteristic of the god Ku, especially by his disrespectful open mouth. His hair, incorporating stylised pigs heads, suggests an additional identification with the god Lono. The pigs’ heads are possibly symbolic of wealth.

The figure is carved from a single piece of breadfruit wood. During the reign of Kamehameha, metal tools could be obtained from Europeans and were used to create figures like this and also to build temples.
The figure is one of only three large temple figures from Hawai’i surviving. It was donated to the British Museum in 1839 by W. Howard. It may have been taken to England by King Litholiho (Kamehameha II) in 1824, as a gift to King George IV.

The figure still holds deep significance for many Hawaiians today. In 2010, the Bishop Museum in Honolulu brought together the three remaining sculptures of Ku, reuniting them for the first time in more than 170 years.