This article describes the birth history of the Kulintang music genre or the Minahasa Wooden Kulintang Music Ensemble. Through the qualitative research method, using a multidisciplinary approach with musicology and ethnomusicology as an umbrella approach, it was found that the Wooden Kulintang Music Ensemble was born in Tumantangtang village of Tomohon Minahasa, made by Lodewijk Supit Kaligis in 1947. The entertainment needs of refugees drove the birth of this music genre during turbulent times in Japan. Kulintang Minahasa was a new music genre due to the transmutation of the Portuguese Keroncong music genre.