Biography
Kikusuimaru Kawachiya (KAWACHIYA Kikusuimaru 河内屋菊水丸) was born 1963 in Yao, Osaka. At age nine he started studying Kawachi ondo with his father, Kawachiya Kikusui.
Kawachi Ondo was originally music to accompany the bon-odori (festival of the dead) in Kawachi, a suburb of Osaka. KAWACHIYA Kikusuimaru is Kawachi Ondo's most famous traditional singer, although also it's prime innovator. A flamboyant character, he's constantly dressed in kimono, and has friends in high places. He once breezed into Baghdad and was granted a private audience with Saddam Hussein.
The song Kakin Ondo is not Kawachi Ondo at all, although the vocal style unmistakably is. Driven by a reggafied beat, the story tells the fortunes of an 'arbeiter' , in search of part time work, and was used in a TV commercial which brought Kikusuimaru national fame. If they were to change the opening of the catchphrase from 'Kakin kin' to Burger King, it could be a TV commercial hit all over again.
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