JapanNewbie

Shing02 Video – Muchi no Chi

Posted on 13. Feb, 2011 @ 6:58 am by harvey in Media, Music Views: 1,352

Here’s a Japanese rap video called Muchi no Chi 無知の知 that I stumbled upon recently. The video is certainly not new, it was done in 2006! I’m late to the party – that doesn’t mean it isn’t still cool though!

This video was directed by Shing02, and includes lyrics from him and five other Japanese MCs, including Kakumakushaka, Hisomi-TNP, Mouthpeace, Eleven, and Meiso. Shing02 is by far my favorite Japanese rapper. Mainly because his lyrics push my Japanese comprehension skills to their limits, and his beats are quality.

I’m not going to pretend to know everything about this video as I literally just discovered it, but here are a few tidbits.

The title of the song is 無知の知。Literally, this translates to “The knowledge of knowing nothing.” Or, something like “the knowledge of ignorance.” The point is that realizing that we are ignorant about some things, is in itself, wisdom.

The video was filmed in various locations, including: Okinawa, Los Angeles, Toyama, Kumamoto, Nagano, and Tokyo.

The rope in this video is apparently from a festival in Okinawa, and it symbolizes the bond between the people.

The overall theme of the song, which is made very clear at the end, is that we need to protect our natural environment against pollution. This song was part of a project headed by Shing02 and Sakamoto Ryuichi to try and stop construction of a nuclear reprocessing plant in Aomori prefecture in a village called Rokkasho.

You can get more information about this Stop Rokkasho project here. The project failed to stop the construction of the plant, but it did a good job of raising awareness.

You can legally download the MP3 for this song and get all the lyrics here. Click the Stop Rokkasho image above to download MP3s for other songs created for this project, including a track by Kraftwerk. (Yay!)

Good stuff!

- Harvey

Links:
Article about a documentary about hte controversial Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant