The book traces the history of traditional Hawaiian containers, called "calabashes," made of wood, gourd, coconut, and fiber. The most containers were carved from kou. The book contains photographs of the various types of calabashes with captions and detailed narratives concerning the artistic traditions used.

First published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In the tradition of Gabriel García Márquez and Maxine Hong Kingston, and deeply rooted in the intricacies of the author’s Japanese-Hawaiian heritage, Calabash Stories is a lucid, unforgettable collection. Jeffrey J. Higa’s stories arise from different points in the same fertile landscape: At times, the recurrence of certain details (a beige Volkswagen bug, a famous entertainer) makes them glow with deeper meaning; at others, the reemergence of potent archetypes (a sick child, an old man living alone) invokes a dream state held between author and reader. Like the traditional Hawaiian calabash, these stories invite their reader to a family table where we are welcomed and nourished by communal traditions. Higa is a master storyteller, delighting in life’s humor and strangeness while arriving at the intimacy and poignancy that come from a shared understanding of grief.