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Contest to Compose the Worldwide Uchinānchu Festival Theme Song
You have until August 13 (Okinawa time) to submit your theme song for the Worldwide Uchinānchu Festival next year. Visit their website’s page for the contest guidelines but one that stood out is that the theme song must have lyrics in Japanese so sadly no instrumentals. Here are the theme song contest details: In order…
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Okinawa History Club YouTube Channel
While it’s only in Japanese, there’s a YouTube channel called Okinawa History Club (沖縄歴史倶楽部チャンネル) run by historian Maeda Yuuki (links to his Twitter profile). He has videos of Zoom sessions as well as walking tours of Ryukyu history. The 4-part series for the Ryukyu dance “Nubui Kuduchi” is of particular interest as he retraces the…
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“Ghosts Can’t Dance” Web Drama (YouTube)
Although the 6-episode web drama “Ghosts Can’t Dance (Yūrei wa Odorenai)” was uploaded to YouTube back in March, I finally finished watching it recently and it’s so good (lots of feels)! Anyone with an interest in Ryukyu culture (both pop and traditional) shouldn’t miss this. The web drama is produced by the Kariyushi Geinou Kouen…
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Murasaki Mura Ryukyu Kingdom Theme Park
From May 23rd to June 30th 2021, Murasaki Mura is offering free admission to its Ryukyu Kingdom theme park while actually being temporarily closed due to the emergency declaration for Okinawa. Sounds like a great opportunity for picture-taking like @Okinawanderer.
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Ryukyu Historical Drama Shō En Ou (TV)
In the category of “I really want to watch this!” comes the RBC Ryukyu historical drama Shō En Ou (the king of the second Shō dynasty) which aired in February 2020 and is being streamed on Japan’s Paravi service and sold as a DVD (sadly, no English subtitles for both editions). The cast is led…
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7th World Uchinanchu Festival
The 7th World Uchinanchu Festival has a date set! It will take place in 2022 from October 31st to November 3rd (note the website counts October 30th as the Festival eve). The “World Uchinanchu Festival” honors the achievements of Okinawan people from all over the world, recognises the great value of the community heritage of…
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@kanasaorganics on Twitter
One of my new Twitter follows, KANASA Co-Operative, is one that shares words and stories from Ryūkyū in English. They also have a website with longer form articles about Ryukyuan culture that’s a great resource to deepen your knowledge. One of my favorite articles is about the hidari-gomon that I see everyday when I pick…
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“Hanamizuki Okinawa Hougen Ver.” is the MV of the Year
If you watch one music video on YouTube, this must be it. The MV is an acoustic cover of the very popular J-pop song Hanamizuki by Hitoto Yō (she’s Japanese and Taiwanese) and matches well with Uchinaa-guchi and Ryūkyū instruments, dance and vocals. (Another version to listen to is from Amami Ōshima’s Minami Kizuki.) The…
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Speaking of Hip-Hop Music from Okinawa
Here’s a new Okinawa hip-hop, rather Ryukyu hip-hop music, album (B-LUNCH 沖縄HIPHOP MIX CD) mixed by DJ KENTA and released on Lunch Boxxx Records. Pretty interesting stuff.
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Yukie Nakama to star in the upcoming NHK period drama “Tempest”
Pictured is the cast for the stage play of “Tempest” starring Yukie Nakama in the main role of Mazuru/Neion Son (真鶴・孫寧温). The play, based on the novel by Naha-born author Eiichi Ikegami, will become a 10-episode BS period drama (BS時代劇) on NHK that is projected to start airing in July 2011. Synopsis of the stage…
Karakui 