Hokan \'ho-kon\ languages Hypothetical superfamily of North American Indian languages uniting a number of languages and language families of the western U.S. and Mexico. The Hokan hypothesis was first proposed by Roland B. Dixon and Alfred L. Kroeber in 1913 and refined by Edward Sapir; like the Penutian designation, it was an attempt to reduce the number of unrelated language families in one of the most linguisti¬
cally heterogeneous areas of the world. Its core consisted of languages of aboriginal California and the Southwest, with outlying members from Sonora and Oaxaca in Mexico. Except for some Yuman languages (spo¬ ken in southern California, Arizona, and Baja California), all were either extinct or spoken almost exclusively by older adults by the beginning of the 21st century.
Hokkaido \h6-'kl-d6\ formerly Yezo \'ye-zo\ Island (pop., 2000 pre¬ lim.: 5,683,000) and province, northern Japan. Northernmost of the four main islands of Japan, it is bordered by the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Pacific Ocean and has an area of 30,107 sq mi (77,978 sq km). Its administrative headquarters is Sapporo. Within its bor¬ ders are several high mountains, including Asahi (7,513 ft [2,290 m]), and Japan’s longest river, the Ishikari. Long the domain of the aboriginal Ainu, Hokkaido attracted serious Japanese settlement beginning in 1869. It has a varied economy, supported by iron and steel, and the largest coal deposits in Japan. The Seikan Tunnel (1988) under the Tsugaru Strait links it with Honshu.
Hokusai Vho-ku-.sl \orig. Katsushika Hokusai (b. Oct. 1760, Edo, Japan—d. May 10, 1849, Edo) Japanese painter, draftsman, printmaker, and book illustrator. Apprenticed to a woodcut engraver at 15, he became a student of the leading ukiyo-e master, Katsukawa Shunsho, in 1778. His first published works, prints of kabuki actors, appeared the following year. He soon turned to historical and landscape subjects and prints of children. He developed an eclectic style and achieved success with book illustra¬ tions and surimono prints (“printed things” for special occasions, such as cards and announcements), picture books and novelettes, erotic books and album prints, paintings, and ink sketches. He experimented with Western- style perspective and use of colour and later concentrated on samurai themes and Chinese subjects. His Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1826— 33), a series of prints, marked a summit in the history of the Japanese landscape print; in grandeur of concept and skill of execution there was little approaching it before and nothing to surpass it later. He had numer¬ ous followers, though none had his power or versatility.
Holbein \'hol- 1 bIn\, Hans, the Younger (b. 1497/98, Augsburg, Bishopric of Augsburg—d. 1543, London, Eng.) German painter, drafts¬ man, and designer renowned for the precise rendering of his drawings and the compelling realism of his portraits, particularly those recording the court of Henry VIII of England. His father, Hans Holbein the Elder, and his uncle Sigmund were renowned for their somewhat conservative examples of late Gothic painting in Germany. Holbein the Younger no doubt studied with his father in Augsburg. He moved to Basel c. 1515, entered the painters’ corporation in 1519, and was executing important murals by 1521. He also designed book illustrations and woodcuts for publishers, notably a series of more than 40 scenes illustrating the medi¬ eval allegory of the “dance of death” (1523-26). His portraits, including that of Desiderius Erasmus (1523), featured rich colour, psychological depth, detailed accessories, and dramatic silhouette. In 1526 he went to England, where he painted portraits of German merchants and court per¬ sonalities, and by 1536 he had entered the service of Henry VIII. In his last 10 years he produced some 150 life-size and miniature portraits of the royalty and nobility. He also designed fashions for the court and state robes for the king. He was one of the greatest portraitists of all time.
Holberg \'hol-berg\, Ludvig, Baron (b. Dec. 3, 1684, Bergen, Nor.—d. Jan. 28, 1754, Copenhagen, Den.) Norwegian-Danish man of letters. Educated in Denmark and England, he traveled in various Euro¬ pean countries before becoming a professor at the University of Copen¬ hagen; while there he began to create a new class of humorous literature. His seriocomic epic Peder Paars (1719), a parody of Virgil’s Aeneid, is the earliest classic of the Danish language. Holberg was soon producing a steady flow of stage comedies, including The Political Tinker (1723), The Weathercock (1723), Jean de France (1723), Jeppe of the Hill (1723), The Fussy Man (1731), and Erasmus Montanus (1731), many of which are still produced. The outstanding Scandinavian literary figure of the Enlightenment, Holberg is claimed by both Norway and Denmark as a founder of their literatures.
Holderlin Vhcel-dor-.lenV (Johann Christian) Friedrich (b. March 20, 1770, Lauffen am Neckar, Wiirttemberg—d. June 7, 1843, Tubingen) German poet. He qualified for ordination but found himself more drawn to Greek mythology than to Christian dogma. In 1793 he was befriended by Friedrich Schiller, who helped him publish his early poetry. He produced works of passionate, expressive intensity, including his only novel, Hype-
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rion (1797-99), the unfinished trag¬ edy The Death of Empedocles, and a number of odes, elegies, and verse translations. In these works he natu¬ ralized the forms of Classical Greek verse in German and lamented the loss of an idealized Classical Greek world. His behaviour became erratic, and in 1805 he succumbed irretriev¬ ably to schizophrenia; he spent his last 36 years in a carpenter’s house under the shadow of insanity. Little recognized in his lifetime, he was forgotten until the 20th century, when he came to be ranked among the finest of German lyric poets.
holding company Corporation that owns enough voting stock in one or more other companies to exercise control over them. A holding com¬ pany provides a means of concen¬ trating control of several companies with a minimum of investment; other means of gaining control, such as mergers or consolidations, are more complicated legally and more expensive. A holding company can reap the benefits of a subsidiary’s goodwill and reputation while limiting its liabil¬ ity to the proportion of the subsidiary’s stock that it owns. The parent company in a conglomerate corporation is usually a holding company.
Holi Vho-le\ Hindu spring festival. It is held on the full-moon day of Phalguna (February-March) and celebrated with reckless abandon. All distinctions of caste, age, sex, and status are disregarded. Participants throw coloured powders on each other, and street celebrations are noisy and riotous. The festival is especially associated with the worship of Krishna, and it is considered an imitation of his play with the wives and daughters of the cowherds.
Holiday, Billie orig. Eleanora Fagan (b. April 7, 1915, Baltimore, Md., U.S.—d. July 17, 1959, New York, N.Y.) U.S. jazz singer. She was “discovered” while she was singing in a Harlem nightclub in 1933.
Recordings with Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington led to a series of outstanding small-group records (1935—42) featuring musicians such as Lester Young (who gave her the sobriquet Lady Day) and Teddy Wil¬ son. Exposure with the big bands of Count Basie (1937) and Artie Shaw (1938) brought her greater public attention; for the rest of her life she would remain one of the best known of jazz singers. Among the songs identified with her were “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child.” Personal crises and drug and alcohol addiction plagued her career, and she was incarcerated in 1947 on nar¬ cotics charges. Her voice could reveal a sweet, often sensual expressive¬ ness or disturbing bitterness in the service of a lyric: her clear projection of emotion represents a landmark of personal expression.