Karakui

Perhaps one of the best YouTube channels around is Nanaironote who does covers of J-pop songs in Uchinaaguchi (although they use Okinawa Hougen in their music video descriptions) with many of the top musicians from Okinawa. We’ve featured their videos on Karakui before but here’s one featuring our favorite now-on-hiatus duo, i-Dushi, covering J-pop star singer-songwriter Aimyon’s “Hadaka no Kokoro” in Uchinaaguchi. Nanaironote has also graciously started sharing the BTS (behind-the-scenes and not the BTS) so we were able to learn a lot about how the collaboration came to be.

In the BTS, we find that it was i-Dushi Naminami’s first time playing kuuchoo (Okinawan fiddle) since college and her first time recording it! She’s so amazingly talented! We also found that Kaanaa (now known as Kanae) and Naminami are both hare-onna (they bring the sun with them). Another interesting tidbit that we’ve already known about is Kaanaa’s signature model sanshin made by Sanshin Koubou Daiki. Finally, the reason why Naminami played kuuchoo (which Nanaironote’s Homare playfully makes fun of the word) and not her guitar (her main instrument in i-Dushi) is that that’s Homare’s instrument. Good thing as we got to see Naminami play and record with it! A final note that wasn’t mentioned is that Aimyon is actually part-Okinawan from her father’s side. How awesome is that!