Ukwanshin Kabudan 御冠船歌舞団

“Danju Kariyushi” played to a sold out audience that experienced laughter, tears, nostalgia, history, and connection to identity. Stories that many had heard in bits and pieces unfolded on stage and connected pieces that brought closure to some and enabled others to fit in the missing pieces to understand stories they had heard before.
Short clips [...]

“Yanajiwa miduri, Hana wa kurinayi, fwitu wa tada nasaki, nmi wa niwui”
Such simple words form the classical song “Yanaji”, but as many “ufu bushi”, classical music pieces, this Ryukyu poem expresses deep meaning that is so simple to understand if we look at the symbols it envokes.  In these words, we can basically find so [...]

The Ukwanshin Gakumun Tour was an amazing experience.  Signs and happenings throughour our tour showed us that our ancestors are still closely connecte to us and want us to continue their legacy.  The kinds of emotions the flowed through and brought together not only the tour members, but also the people we met, was great. [...]

Our gakumun tour left Naha City and headed south to the Shimajiri area.  We first stoped at Haebaru town which is known for the beautiful Ryukyu Kasuri, or handwoven textiles with splashed ikat patterns.  The Kasuri Kaikan there had weavers from its guild working on some very intricate and delicate pieces, while the sound of [...]

This past Gakumun Kai focused on our Okinawa mini conference theme “Imi ni Miru Uchinaa”, “The Okinawa We See In Our Dreams.  This title encompasses the Okinawa that we as 3rd,4th,5th, generations have seen or heard through stories of our grandparents and great grandparents, and through our own experiences of visiting and touching base [...]

Our short trip to Okinawa for Toshi’s wedding was filled to the seams with visits to places we are going to next month and also unexpected emergence of places that we should try to get to.  Our talks with the leaders and coordinators of some of the locations we’ll be visiting turned into  hours of [...]

As Ukwanshin began its journey almost 10 years ago, we never thought that the name, which infers to the crownship of the LooChoo dynasty, would turn out to be a real vessel that took us and anyone who became involved in Ukwanshin, to experience travels, emotions and connections.  This past year so far has been [...]

The Maui Okinawan community came together August 22nd for the rare treat of awakening its first shisaa/lion.  What made it more special was that the shisaa was made entirely in Maui, by Maui members of maui Ryukyu Culture Group.  The Shisaa awakening ceremony was the prelude to the Paia Rinzai Zen Mission’s Bon Dance Festival, [...]

It was not too long ago in Okinawa, that the audience laughed, cried, danced and verbally participated in “shibai”, or theater plays and performances. The musicians played and sang the songs which expressed the poetry or song. The dancer or actor presented the visual aspect of the song or story, and the audience [...]

Presently, as we look into what we really know of our identity and culture, and how many people actually understand reasons for why certain things are done in connection to our culture, we find that there are many voids to fill. It seems that in any ethnic group, there are modern and commercial aspects [...]