Two members from two different punk bands, Mescaline Drive and Newest Model, joined together to form Soul Flower Union.
From Mescaline Drive was Hideko Itami who brought the glam rock to the Soul Flower Union.
This acoustic unit was named Soul Flower Mononoke Summit and is still active as a side project of SFU.
During this time the song 'Mangetsu no Yube' was written (and co-written by Hiroshi Yamaguchi of the group Heatwave) for the victims of the earthquake.
Soul Flower Mononoke Summit has played in a number of rather unusual places, including North Korea, East Timor, the infamous landfill in the Philippines known as Smokey Mountain, as well as Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan.
SFU and Soul Flower Mononoke Summit are extremely political bands, and have supported a number of causes in Japan and around the world, with a special focus on the rights of minority peoples and on anti-war activity.
Founding member Hideko Itami sings "hayashi" and plays various kinds of Japanese, Okinawan and Korea percussion instruments.
As a result, these days she concentrates mostly on Soul Flower Mononoke Summit, although she still appears on SFU's studio albums and in high-profile gigs.
In the past, clarinet player and Chin-Don musician Okuma Wataru was a frequent collaborator and sometimes member of SFU, and he still plays in Soul Flower Mononoke Summit.
Violinist Keisuke Ota also frequently appeared in Soul Flower Union's past albums and live shows.
He has helped strengthen the band's focus on traditional Okinawan music, and has also been a major force in their strong Irish/Celtic influence.