“Okinawa’s Kitchen”, the First Makishi Public Market built anew after deterioration from age. (20mr23)


Splendor of Okinawa: Brassica, roadside Uruma, 17mr23


Construction has been completed on rebuilding the Naha ‘s First Makishi Public Market, a popular tourist attraction, after its deterioration from age. On 19 March, its unique foods were laid out on display at the Market for its renewal opening. Its popular “Take up”, where food bought on the first floor could be carried up to the second to have it cooked, was inherited from the former market and is aimed at enamoring the market to tourists and locals alike.


The site area of the new market is 1747 meters square, with 3 floors constructed above ground. The first floor is lined with 72 small shops dealing in raw meat, fresh fish, and perishables. The shops are built facing the street giving rise to a sense of harmony with the surrounding Machigwa- Shopping Street. The second floor is a shopping hall with 12 linked eating and drinking shops. The third floor has a newly established culinary experience classroom. Some businesses closed down in connection with the reconstruction, but 9 new businesses were added through public recruitment.

　

The established public market had its origin in a black market. The public market opened in 1950. However, the neighboring Ga-bu River from time to time overflowed and left the market flooded. In 1969, it was destroyed in a huge fire and in 1972, the Old Market was reborn. Its  100 or so shops bristled with crowds as “Okinawa’s Kitchen”.


For the sake of the newest reconstruction, business had to be stopped at the Old Market in June of 2019. The businesses were relocated to temporary housing about 100 meters away from the former site. The New Market was scheduled to open In April of 2022. However, the opening had to be delayed for one year because measures were necessary to strengthen weak soil at the site.


At the New Market, each shop opened for business right on time, with goat meat, chiraga- (pig face skin: Ryukyuan humorously for pretty skin), abasa- (porcupine fish), and shima rakyo- (Okinawan long onions) lined up at the stalls.


Masako Uehara (79), who formerly ran the Uehara Mountain Goat Meat Shop at the Old Market, quipped, “May the lively crowds like this keep coming! I’d like to do my best to get local people to come as well!”

The day’s opening ceremony was complete with dignitaries such as Naha Mayor Satoru Chinen, Okinawa Prefecture Governor Denny Tamaki, and former Prime Minister Yoshihida Suga offering congratulations.


Original Japanese article: Mainichi Shimbun, published Sunday 19 March 2023 at 18:07. Byline: Hiroshi Higa.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/df64faa5a185e4be039dcd89a4e5f4f751a28fce


Denny in the News: news about Governor Denny Tamaki.

Denny Tamaki is the governor of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. Although Okinawa is important as an international tourist destination and a key element in strategic US Military Forces, its governor receives very little coverage in the Japanese press and almost none in the English language media. 

  1. This blog hopes to  translate one news article a day on the governor.  It is unsponsored and unauthorized. The translator simply hopes to improve his skills and perhaps give the governor an English speaking audience. 

  2. Any suggestion on improving the translation will be gratefully accepted. However, please leave political comments for another forum.

  3. Where they occur, words and phrases in Ryukyuan (the Okinawan language) are rendered in italics and translated in parentheses. Names  whose readings are uncertain are rendered as Name (=Kanji?) as in Nagayuki (=長行?). Any corrections in such instances would be gratefully appreciated.

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