Ryoji, the charismatic frontman and mastermind behind skacore group Potshot, has the impossibly skinny, graceful physique of a true rock star. Think Mick Jagger in 1969 or Kurt Cobain 20 years later: the ugly duckling reborn through the grace of a power chord.

Walking through the streets of Shibuya, he is stopped here and there by a breathless youngster demanding an autograph, a request he graciously fulfills with a wry smile.

"I'm happy that people like the songs I play, but not personally happy about people coming up to me like that," he says. "I understand their feelings, though."

It's an experience that has become more familiar as Potshot, released on indie label TV Freak Records, has shot out of the underground and into the limelight. Along with Hi-Standard and Brahman, Potshot has become one of the standard bearers of a bottom-up rock movement. Eschewing mainstream record companies and their promotional gambits, Potshot's popularity is scene-based and tour-driven.

Their previous album, "Potshot 'Til I Die," was last year's surprise, bumping up against Morning Musume and their ilk on the record charts. The success of "Potshot a Go Go," their latest album, has proven that the group is still on target.

"It is somewhat of a shock to the music business that [this kind of music] has done so well outside of the mainstream, and done so much to create an indie music world that didn't exist 10 years ago," says Keith Cahoon, Tower Records' head of Asian Operations.

If Japan's music moguls are in shock, so is Ryoji. "I have no idea how it happened," he says. Your average cynical music critic would be hard pressed to explain it too.

The popularity of Japanese skacore is something adults have a difficult time understanding. The lyrics are full of the stock phrases that most folks left behind with their early Black Flag records. The hooks are equally predictable. The blend of the light soulfulness of Jamaican or better, British ska and the frenetic, thrusting energy of Southern California hardcore is entertaining live, but loses much of its energy on record.

But where cynical rock critics might hear platitudes, a young person beset with the worries of school or heartbreak of first relationships hears anthems. And anthems, sung at full voice while enjoying the sweaty camaraderie of the mosh pit, are what gave punk rock its intoxicating flavor in the first place.

"There is a theory," says Cahoon, "that the crowd participation aspects of the scene appeal to the Japanese 'matsuri' aesthetic."

The tradition of the verse-chorus-verse song structure too is a living connection between past and present: a condensed textbook of rock history.

"A person can listen to a lot of records and by listening to them learn so much, stuff they would never learn in school," says Ryoji. "I hope that kids can achieve something like that listening to Potshot."

The "kids" are the key to the group's success. The scene ultimately is what spawns bands like Potshot, and Ryoji has a sense of his responsibility to it.

"In the end, I'm doing music because I like it, but the kids help the scene grow, so I guess I have a responsibility for this. Though skapunk didn't start as mainstream music, it is being recognized by the mainstream, but I hope we can maintain the scene."

He already has in the form of his "Plea for Peace Tour." The original tour idea came from Ryoji's skacore senpai Mike Park, an American of Korean extraction, long active in the California skacore scene and proprietor of skacore label Asian Man Records.

Park has taken the political aspirations of the original ska -- a mixture of white and black music -- to heart. The American version of "Plea for Peace" donated money to charities and tried to educate young people about victims of violence and the need for unity and tolerance.

Ryoji is sweetly upfront about the problems of musical pedantry in Japan.

"In Japan, charity shows are serious business and are not really considered 'cool,' " he says. "But peace and unity are directly connected with everyday life so I think I need to make a place, a beginning for people to think about it or else nothing will really start."

Social consciousness isn't the only thing that Potshot encourages. The group plays over 100 shows a year, hitting geographical nooks and crannies rarely sought out by bigger, better financed acts.

When they return in subsequent years, it is usually to a handful of "copy" bands founded in their wake. This musical incubation has begun to bear fruit. Skacore groups continue to flourish throughout the country. TV Freak Records has already signed several other skacore bands, ensuring that Potshot's success won't be a flash in the pan.

Grown-ups might not understand. But then again, they aren't supposed to.

The Potshot tour: Nov. 25: Saga Geils Nov. 27: Fukuoka Logos. (For more information, call Kyodo Nishi Nippon at (092) 714-0159.) Nov. 29, Nara Neverland, (06) 6882-1224 Dec. 3, Yokohama Bay Hall, (045) 624-3900 Dec. 5, Nagoya Diamond Hall, (052) 265-2666 Dec. 8, Osaka Mother's Hall, (06) 6882-1224 Dec. 11, Chiba Look, (043) 225-8828 Dec. 12, On Air East Shibuya, (03) 3476-8686 Dec. 16, Sendai Junk Box, (022) 296-8888 Dec. 19, Mito Light House, (029) 224-7622 Dec. 20, Maebashi Fleez, (027) 232-8946.

All tickets 2,000 yen in advance, 2,500 yen at the door.