Uchina World Music

On Friday next week (17^th) an Uchina World Music evening is being held at Sound M’s in Naha. This will feature live music from singers and sanshin players Mutsumi Aragaki and Kanako Horiuchi as well as Mina from London who is a singer, composer, sanshin player and violinist.

Mutsumi Aragaki, Kanako Horiuchi & Mina

Aragaki and Horiuchi were included on CD compilations presented at WOMEX and both took part in the ‘Music from Okinawa’ showcase this year at the Trans Asia Music Meeting. Horiuchi has travelled the world to promote the music of Okinawa and she made the acclaimed album Hana Umui in Senegal in 2015. Meanwhile London-based Mina took part in Sven Kacirek’s Songs From Okinawa project and appears on the subsequent album released in Germany.

Things get under way at Sound M’s at 20:00 on Friday and the entrance fee is 2,000 yen plus a drinks charge. (Phone: 090-1067-8055).

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Trans Asia Music Meeting

The Trans Asia Music Meeting 2017 was a very successful event which enabled an open exchange of music and ideas. It took place over last weekend in Naha at three venues and featured lots of music showcases as well as fascinating talks and chances for people to network. The conference brought together speakers from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, South Korea, Mongolia, Russia and the UK.

Here is just a small selection of photos from the ‘Music from Okinawa’ organisers.

Keynote speaker Kazufumi Miyazawa

Miyako Island singer Hirara

Presentation by Kwangmin Seo from South Korea whose band Laybricks also performed a great set

Sakishima Meeting

The conference on Sunday afternoon

Musicians and music people get together

http://www.musicfromokinawa.com

 

Trans Asia Music Meeting 2017

The Trans Asia Music Meeting is being held again in Okinawa and takes place this year on the weekend of 21^st/22^nd January. Organised by ‘Music from Okinawa’, the focus of the conference is on introducing Okinawan music overseas and on ways to build an Asian music network.

The keynote speech on the 21^st will be given by Kazufumi Miyazawa, former leader of The Boom whose hit song ‘Shimauta’ has become a classic in Okinawa. There will also be live music on the 21^st from Hirara and Sakishima Meeting. The music showcase on the 22^nd features thirteen different performances and includes music from South Korea and Taiwan as well as Okinawa.

Full details are on the Music from Okinawa website:

www.musicfromokinawa.com

Bottle Mail

Ship of the Ryukyu is a theatre company of singers and dancers from Okinawa. Last night I went to see their performance of Bottle Mail (Message in a Bottle) at Tenbusu Hall, Naha. The one hour show is written and directed by Megumi Tomita and has already been performed to great acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and in France at the Festival off d’Avignon.

The story depicts the small ancient kingdom of Ryukyu and how its people sent messages across the sea in bottles to make contact with the wider world and to tell people there about life on these islands. It’s no surprise that Bottle Mail was so well received in Europe as the entire show is full of warmth, energy and vitality.

Songs and dances are alternated with a video backdrop that tells the story with subtitles in Chinese and English. The performances, by just eight members of the collective, cover songs and dances from the Ryukyu court as well as the everyday lives of the people. Included are ‘Tanchame’ which is performed as a duet, ‘Kurushima Kuduchi’ from Yaeyama, and the cheerful work song ‘Inishiribushi’ plus the ever popular Eisa.

Bottle Mail can be enjoyed by anyone and by all ages. It was a great evening and managed to be both entertaining and informative at the same time. If you are in Okinawa and want to have your spirits lifted it’s still possible to see the show today (3^rd December) or tomorrow (4^th) when there are two afternoon shows at 13:00 and 16:00.

Niraikanai Matsuri in Pictures

Heiko Junge returned to Okinawa from Norway as official photographer for Shoukichi Kina’s Niraikanai Matsuri which took place at the weekend in Ginowan. What follows is just a small selection of the many photos he took at the two day festival and also backstage.

Among the musicians featured in these pictures are Satoru Shimoji, Hidekatsu, Pascal Plantinga, and of course Shoukichi Kina & Champloose. Fortunately there was glorious weather on both days and the festival was a great success. Thanks to Heiko for the use of the photos.

Niraikanai Matsuri

The Niraikanai Matsuri is a two day festival of music and entertainment directed by Shoukichi Kina. It will be held this week on Saturday (5^th) and Sunday (6^th) at Ginowan Seaside Park Outdoor Theatre. This is the latest in an intermittent series of Niraikanai festivals organised by Kina over the years and this one is supported by the 6^th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival. Its aim is to showcase the rich and peaceful cultural heritage of the Ryukyu Islands and to provide a “worldwide music celebration for the future”.

Saturday’s programme (15:00~21:00) is billed as a Ryukyu Entertainment Spectacle and will include traditional performing arts, classical Ryukyu music and eisa, while Sunday’s all music event (11:00~21:00) is scheduled as a Celebration Dance Party with artists from many genres. Among those taking part will be Satoru Shimoji and Hidekatsu – and, of course, Shoukichi Kina & Champloose.

Joining from overseas will be the band Mate Power from Germany who are also touring mainland Japan. There will also be a set from Pascal Plantinga who is coming from the Netherlands. Plantinga has collaborated on recordings with Kina and promises to show off some of his “electro-jazz-punk”. Advance tickets are 3,000 yen for one day and 5,500 yen for both days.

http://tiny.cc/niraikanai01

6th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival

The 6^th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival takes place this week at various locations throughout Okinawa and it promises to be the biggest ever gathering of Uchinanchu people, relatives and friends. Many of them have travelled from countries far and wide to be in Okinawa at this time in order to celebrate their Ryukyu heritage. The festival is held once every five years.

The festival’s website states that Okinawan identity has been sustained overseas through cultural activities such as traditional performing arts, sanshin, and karate, and “with the 6th festival we would like the citizens of Okinawa to rediscover the unique culture, natural features, and history that encompass Okinawa’s so-called “soft power.” At the same time, we also wish to promote among our citizens the role that the Uchinanchu festival has played in our history of emigration and the importance of expanding and developing the Uchinanchu Network.”

Kariyushi 58

Nenez

Some pre-festival events have already been held including the Festival Eve Parade of participating groups in Naha’s Kokusai-dori this afternoon but the festival officially begins tomorrow (27^th) at 17:00 with the Opening Ceremony at Okinawa Cellular Stadium in Naha.

This being Okinawa, music will feature heavily in the festival celebrations and as well as a number of sessions for eisa and sanshin there will be performances by established Okinawan musicians at Cellular Stadium. These performances will follow the Opening Ceremony and then the Grand Finale which comes after the Closing Ceremony at the same venue on Sunday (30^th).

Begin

Rimi Natsukawa

Diamantes

Appearing at the Opening Ceremony will be Rimi Natsukawa, Parsha Club, Nenez, and Mai Hanashiro who will sing the festival’s theme song. The biggest music event comes on Sunday evening as part of the Grand Finale when there will be music by Begin, Diamantes, Kariyushi 58, Ryukyudisko, Vanesa Oshiro, Mai Hanashiro and May J.

Full details of all the events are available in English at the official website for the 6^th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival:

http://wuf2016.com/en/

Satoru Shimoji in Naha

Miyako Island singer Satoru Shimoji performs live on Saturday 22nd October at Guuwa in Naha. This is a rare and highly recommended chance to see Shimoji on the main island of Okinawa. He has become one of the very best representatives of music from Miyako after a career which included a 15 year spell in Tokyo. He subsequently returned to the roots of his native island where he produces other musicians and runs his own recording studio.

His two most recent albums Myahk (2012) and Myahk-U (2015) reached new heights and find him at the peak of his career. Both albums were reviewed on this blog. Shimoji will play with a small band of musicians on violin, piano, and percussion, as well as daughter Minami Shimoji on sanshin and vocals. It all begins at 19:00 and entry (including one drink) is 2,5oo yen.

http://www.shimojisatoru.jp

Pink Dot Okinawa 2016

The annual Pink Dot Okinawa gathering takes place this weekend in Naha. The main events will be on Sunday (17^th July) in Tenbusu-mae Square from 13:00 until 17:00 and will begin with an Eisa show by Nahadaiko. There is a live set from singer/songwriter Atsuko Hiyajo and this year the duo Sakishima Meeting (Yukito Ara & Isamu Shimoji) will join the event and are on stage at 16:10.

Pink Dot Okinawa aims for a more tolerant and inclusive society for LGBT. It is supported by the municipal government of Naha who last year announced its Rainbow Naha Declaration outlining the city’s respect for gender and sexual diversity. All are welcome and attendance on Sunday is free but participants are asked if possible to wear something pink.

http://pinkdotok.jp/

Sunday Sessions at Chakra

Last year Shoukichi Kina held an ‘8 Days Live’ event at his ‘live house’ Chakra on Naha’s Kokusai-dori in order to celebrate his 50 years of making music. It was a remarkable series of evenings with Kina inviting guests to perform their own music and to join him on stage. His expulsion from Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) and subsequent failure in the election for Okinawa Governor seemed to have reinvigorated his desire to make music again.

The new relaxed Kina is already planning the latest in his intermittent series of Niraikanai Festivals which is scheduled for November this year in Ginowan. In the meantime he is reawakening the spirit of those live shows from last year by staging some jam sessions at Chakra every Sunday evening.

The one we attended last Sunday featured a wide range of music and musicians and also a performance by belly dancers. The music spanned Okinawan traditional and contemporary but there was also jazz and rock and hints of Arabic, Irish, and even flamenco. Anything goes. Kina himself sang a short set with his band Champloose which included a lovely version of his original song ‘Omoibana’ while ‘Haisai Ojisan’ brought the entire audience to its feet with arm-flinging kachashii abandon.

Miyako singer and sanshin player Hirara is a regular at these sessions and she sang and played some songs from her islands very movingly. The photos here come courtesy of Hirara and also Norwegian photographer Heiko Junge who has been visiting Okinawa again.

Entry to Chakra for these Sunday sessions is just 1,000 yen.