According to
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/index/Oldest_Swiss_dies_at_112.html?cid=8299820
Kama Chinen from Okinawa, Japan, is believed to be the oldest person
alive today. She will turn 115 on May 10, 2010.
KAMA CHINEN, aged 114 years and 125 days old, born on May 10, 1895 in Okinawa, Japan was officially crowned as the World’s oldest person.
Category Archives: Research
Okinawa Textile video
Nicely done video introduction to Ryukyuan textiles.
ryukyutextile.com
I love Ryukyuan textiles. Amami Oshima tsumugi, Bashoufu, orimono from Kume-jima are the best. This looks like a lovely simple site about Ryukyuan textiles.
http://ryukyutextile.com/
"The islands in Okinawa area have very rich textile culture. There are numerous methods to decorate textiles in Okinawa,such as Bingata Dyeing and ikat weaving. Using various materials, for example basho-fu and Yaeyama Jo-fu and Hanaori in silk. Most of these small islands have their own style and materials of weaving and dyeing."
oki yo! Blog
http://okiyo.wordpress.com/
Two cousins embark on a mission to research the music and culture of the motherland: Okinawa Island, Japan. One a recent high-school graduate in search of like-minded Okinawan indie rockers, one a not-so-recent college graduate in search of the native cultural roots of those modern musicians. Both looking for a way to not enter the workforce for three more months.
Planet Oki
I received this from Michael Monroy and Astro:
wassup yall this is the planet oki homepage. we a movement, we are going to take over the internet world. give okinawa that recognition, where we grew up at. have oki artist uploaded on this page, oki’graff artist, oki dancers, anythin with oki on it is gettin put on here, right now im workin on this page. keep tune check out planet oki’s emcees
http://www.myspace.com/planetoki
Summer in the Ryukyus
This is a poem I composed to express the feeling of summer days in Okinawa.
Drops of sweat glisten in the sun,
Trickling down flushed-out cheeks.
Like rain-wash in a stony crag,
Moisture flows and humidity peaks.
The stickiness of summer pervades
The body like a painful prick
Cicadae sing their stridulate songs,
Ad nauseam to make one sick.
Typhoon Season
Since June is the start of Typhoon Season in Okinawa. I thought this poem would be appropriate. I composed this one while sitting through a typhoon in my studio apartment in Okinawa 2003.
The wind rips the Rock like a saw through timber.
Rain forms in broad sheets carried on great gales.
In Okinawa cyclone blown, racked but limber.
Prepare, batten down hatches and trim the sails.
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Cave of the Virgins
This is a poem about a sacred place in southern Okinawa called "Himeyuri No To" (Cave of the Virgins). My poem details what happened there and explains why it is a sacred place. A memorium of mourning after the last battle of WWII.
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Classical Okinawa Dance Videos
Videos of the joint performance of classical Okinawan dance with Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai and Kariyushi Kai.
http://www.veoh.com/channels/2004Kariyushikai
Takejiro Higa
I happened across the story of Takejiro Higa on the University of Hawaii web site. He was born in Hawaii of Okinawan ancestry, moved to Okinawa at 2 years of age and returned to Hawaii at 16. He witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor and enlisted to serve in US Army Military Intelligence Service. His service returned him to Okinawa to participate in the battle as an interrogator and translator. A fascinating life.
http://nisei.hawaii.edu/page/takejiro.html