Okinawa Day 2025

Okinawa Day 2025 is a family friendly event that will introduce the audience to music, dances, and food from the islands of the Ryukyu archipelago to highlight its incredibly rich cultural diversity. Okinawa Prefecture encompasses an archipelago of islands in Southern Japan that formed part
of the historic Ryukyu Kingdom and as such has its own distinct music and traditions. 

Live Performance 

A variety of performances showcasing Okinawan culture will feature throughout the day. From elegant Ryukyu Classical Music and energetic sanshin performances of Okinawan Folk Songs to traditional Eisa dance performances. There will be the chance to try Eisa dance through a workshop taught along with demonstrations of Ryukyu Karate, a martial art originating from Okinawa.

In addition, guest performers from the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Amami, and Tokyo will be visiting the UK to showcase their unique island folk songs and dances. Visitors can also expect to see guest performers from Switzerland and France thanks to our long-standing friendship with the Paris Sanshin Club.

Food and Goods Stalls

Taking advantage of the venue’s historic use as a street market, Okinawan cuisine, food, and crafts will be on sale from a variety of stalls run by the London Okinawa Sanshinkai and other independent retailers.

About Us

London Okinawa Sanshinkai

London Okinawa Sanshinkai was formed in 1999 at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) by academics specialising in Ryukyu Classical Music and Yaeyama Folk Songs studies. Since then, the group has been disseminating Okinawan music, dances and culture through a variety of activities and performances not only in the UK but also in other European countries. At the centre of these activities is our annual “Okinawa Day” event.

A history of “Okinawa Day” in the UK

There have been many events in London over the years introducing traditional Okinawan music and dance to the UK. Notably, the Rinken Band’s performance in Hyde Park, Sonoda Eisa’s performance at the Thames Festival, and recitals by Shinji Kise (Master of the Nomura School of Ryukyu Classical Music).

In June 2009, London Okinawa Sanshinkai and Okinawa Kenjinkai (The UK Okinawan Association) organised an event called “Okinawa Matsuri” at Café Oto in Northeast London. In Okinawa, a public holiday called Memorial Day is observed annually on the 23rd of June, and to coincide with this, we have been holding our London Okinawa Day event on the third Saturday of June ever since.

Since 2010, the event has been held under its new name “Okinawa Day”.

Moving its location to Spitalfields in East London, it has successfully run for 10 years, growing to the point of attracting an audience of around thousands of visitors each year.

Unfortunately, from 2020, Okinawa Day was on a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, but had a successful second start in 2022 in a new location; The Blue Market in Bermondsey, South London (https://thebluemarket.co.uk). The Blue Market, built with a unique architectural style focusing on sustainability and community was a perfect fit for our event and allowed 2024’s Okinawa Day to be our biggest and most captivating yet. The Blue Market’s central philosophy of embracing the diversity of people and culture matches our own and we hope to attract even more people, from all backgrounds, to enjoy this year’s Okinawa Day and celebrate music from across the world.

Okinawa Day 2025 will be held on Saturday, the 28th of June at The Blue Market, Bermondsey.

Blue Bermondsey BID 

This event continues Blue Bermondsey BID’s on-going programme of events and workshops to promote co-creation and wellbeing though creativity, music, physical activity, inspiration learning and awareness of the local environment. Events such as Okinawa day bring diverse communities together to participate and mix and encouraging footfall to local businesses and amenities including The Blue Market, Big Local Works and Blue Anchor Library.  Visitors enjoy different kinds of participatory activities at each event exploring a wide range of interests with art and crafts, music, storytelling, games, and environmental activities, with everyone welcome to join in and participate, especially local families.  Our target audience is people of all ages, colours and genders who live in the locality, especially families with school age children. We believe that having held many successful events on the site over the past 14 years, we have built up a solid understanding of the safe management and delivery of events in this location.  

Programme

11:00 Kajadifu
11:05 London Okinawa Sanshinkai “Kariyushi” set
11:40 Nomura School of Ryukyu Classical Music
12:05 Okinawa Tourism
12:15 Paris Sanshin Club “Yuyanaure” set
12:50 Amami Folk Music
13:15 Eisa Traditional Dancing
13:40 Okinawan Karate Gojyu Ryu / Meibukan
14:10 Utakimbi from Switzerland
14:40 Eisa Workshop
15:00 London Okinawa Sanshinkai / Paris Sanshin Club “Mo Ashibi” set
16:00 Amami Folk Music
16:25 Eisa Traditional Dancing Finale