Customer Reviews

The Music Power from Okinawa

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If you want a true representation of Okinawan music this is it. I lived in Okinawa for 13 years, (83-96) and attended many festivals, often the only foreigner, at different villages and islands and was fortunate enough to meet Shoukichi in early '95. To set the record straight: Kina's Kitchen in Okinawa is not Shoukichi's club and didn't even exist in it's present location when this CD was recorded. Shoukichi's club is located in Naha City.

I was stationed on Okinawa (Camp Kinser) from December 1997 to December 1998 and frequented Kina's Kitchen. (Where this CD was recorded). The Okinawan people are very respectful, modest, kind, and generous. Their music is beautiful and steeped in history and culture. This recording is a good representation of how diverse the music of Okinawa sounds. I miss Kina's Kitchen and my Okinawan friends who I used to sing Karaoke with downstairs on the 3rd floor right below Kina's. It was one of the best years of my life and I will forever be grateful to the people of Okinawa for welcoming a foreignor to their country with kindness and respect.

2009 and at long last bumping into this guy. I just LOVE it. Never mind what type of music it should be filed under. Listen and enjoy.

Absolutely beautiful. The first time I heard Champloose was on a grassy knoll overlooking Naha city. The humid sun was setting and a soft East China sea breeze loosened the heat and carried the music of Champloose. I cried it was such an experience. Hearing that music again...especially the most tear-jerking song ever written, Agarizachi, is a true gift. The music is nostalgic of a pre-War island with its upbeat, playful quality and yet it haunts with the scars of that terrible war. To hear it is ethereal.

Kina's Kitchen was first located by Kadena Gate 1 in what was in the late sixties, early seventies called the Pan Pacific Building. It moved in the mid 90's to the location near Ft Buckner, Camp BUtler to you Marines who can't remember that the whole are save the small Fostor area was once all Army property. It was located adjacent to what is called Hamby Town on some old Army Helo field and reclaimed land.

Kina by the way is a mans name.. its now closed I believe.

It is fine to like this music, but to call it "proto-punk" is a total misnomer. That line you've heard about punk being about attitude, not music? It's a lie. Whatever lifestyle choices the term connotes, it most definitely does specify a type of rock 'n' roll, and "The Music Power from Okinawa" most definitely has nothing in common with it. Shonen Knife? Punk rock. REO Speedwagon? Not punk rock. Green Day? Perhaps a matter of opinion, but judging strictly from Amazon's sound clips, Shoukichi Kina makes them sound like the baddest, most strident, least socially acceptable punk band on earth. Sorry to rain on the parade, but I've read two reviews alluding to the "punk" nature of this album, and I have better things to do than to spend time previewing a mislabeled recording and be reminded that some ignorant music writers can't fathom the most obvious fine-points of pop-music analysis.