is the music associated with the

Okinawa Islands The Okinawa Islands ( or ) are an island group in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan and are the principal island group of the prefecture. The Okinawa Islands are part of the larger Ryukyu Islands group and are located between the Amami Islands of Ka ...

of southwestern Japan. In modern Japan, it may also refer to the musical traditions of Okinawa Prefecture, which covers the Miyako and

Yaeyama Islands The Yaeyama Islands (八重山列島 ''Yaeyama-rettō'', also 八重山諸島 ''Yaeyama-shotō'', Yaeyama: ''Yaima'', Yonaguni: ''Daama'', Okinawan: ''Yeema'', Northern Ryukyuan: ''Yapema'') are an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa P ...

in addition to the Okinawa Islands. It has its roots in the larger musical traditions of the Southern Islands.

Genres

A dichotomy widely accepted by Okinawan people is the separation of musical traditions into ''koten'' (classical) and ''

min'yō , ''Nihon min'yō'', Japanese ''min'yō'' or Japanese folk music is a genre of traditional Japanese music. Characteristics Styles Many ''min'yō'' are connected to forms of work or to specific trades and were originally sung between work ...

'' (folk). Okinawa was once ruled by the highly centralized kingdom of Ryūkyū. The samurai class in the capital of Shuri developed its

high culture High culture is a subculture that emphasizes and encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, art, and literature that a society con ...

while they frequently suppressed

folk culture Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...

in rural areas. Musicologist Susumu Kumada added another category, "popular music", to describe songs that emerged after the kingdom was abolished in 1879.

Classical music

was the court music of Ryūkyū. was the traditional chamber music of the royal palace at

Shuri Castle was a Ryukyuan ''gusuku'' castle in Shuri, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Between 1429 and 1879, it was the palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom, before becoming largely neglected. In 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa, it was almost completely destroyed ...

. It was performed by the bureaucrats as official duties. The texture is essentially

heterophonic In music, heterophony is a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line. Such a texture can be regarded as a kind of complex monophony in which there is only one basic melody, but realized at the same time ...

using a single melodic line. Pitched accompaniment instruments each play a simultaneous variation on the vocal line.

Folk music

Traditionally seen as "low culture" by the samurai class, folk music gained positive evaluation with the rise of folkloristics led by Yanagita Kunio. Folk music is described by the Japanese term ''

''. Since the kingdom was abolished, some members of the former samurai class spread Shuri-based high culture to other areas of Okinawa. Some of such new elements are today seen as part of folk culture. Okinawa's folk songs are generally accompanied by one (or more)

sanshin The is an Okinawan and Amami Islands musical instrument and precursor of the mainland Japanese (). Often likened to a banjo, it consists of a snakeskin-covered body, neck and three strings. Origins Its close resemblance in both appearance a ...

. The suffixes '' -ondo'' and '' -bushi'' (both meaning "song" or "melody") may also be attached to the title of folk songs, however songs named without these clarifiers are more common. Eisā and kachāshī are Okinawan dances with specific music styles that accompany them. ;Warabi uta is a general term for nursery rhymes and children's songs.

Popular music

New folk songs

, composed in the style of traditional Okinawan min'yō, have been written by several contemporary Okinawan folk musicians such as Rinshō Kadekaru, Sadao China, Shoukichi Kina, Seijin Noborikawa, and Tsuneo Fukuhara. These songs are often heard in contemporary pop music arrangements. , with music and lyrics by Shōkichi Kina, is typical of this genre. Okinawa's (new) folk songs are sometimes referred to as '' shima-uta''. The term is not native to Okinawa but was borrowed from its northern neighbor, the

Amami Islands The The name ''Amami-guntō'' was standardized on February 15, 2010. Prior to that, another name, ''Amami shotō'' (奄美諸島), was also used. is an archipelago in the Satsunan Islands, which is part of the Ryukyu Islands, and is southwest of ...

, in the 1970s. The application of the term to Okinawan music is disfavored by people who see '' shima-uta'' as a regional brand of the Amami Islands.

Okinawa pop

The music of Okinawa came under the influence of

American rock American rock has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and country music, and also drew on folk music, jazz, blues, and classical music. American rock music was further influenced by the British Invasion of the American pop ...

music beginning with the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Many musicians began to blend the Okinawan folk music style and native instruments with those of American popular and rock music. This is called "Uchinaa pop". One example is Ryukyu Underground, who combine both classical and folk music with modern Dub music.

Instrumentation

The instrument that defines Okinawan music is the

(shamisen). It is a three-stringed lute, very similar to the Chinese

sanxian The (, literally "three strings") is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several siz ...

and a precursor to the Japanese shamisen. The body is covered in snake skin and it is plucked with a plectrum worn on the index finger. Okinawan folk music is often accompanied by various taiko drums such as , , and . Pārankū, a small hand-held drum about the size of a tambourine, is often used in eisā dancing. Other percussion instruments such as , and can often be heard in Okinawan music. ''Sanba'' are three small, flat pieces of wood or plastic that are used to make rapid clicking sounds, similar to castanets. ''Yotsutake'' are two sets of rectangular

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

strips tied together, one set held in each hand, clapped together on the strong beat of the music. Traditionally they have been used in classical music, but recently they have been used in eisā dancing.Yotsutake: Okinawa Daihyakka 沖縄大百科
A group of singers called a often accompanies folk music, singing the chorus or interjecting shouts called . Also finger whistling called is common in kachāshī and eisā dance tunes. Additional instruments are often used in classical music, and sometimes incorporated in folk music: * – an Okinawan version of the

koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * K ...

; often called or * – an Okinawan version of the

kokyū The is a traditional Japanese string instrument, the only one played with a bow. A variant of the instrument also exists in Okinawa, called in Okinawan. The , like the , has its origins in Okinawa. Although it is similar to Chinese , it a ...

* – an Okinawan transverse flute; also called ''fansō'' (ファンソー) or

Tonality

''The following is described in terms used in Western disciplines of music.'' Music from Okinawa uses tonal structure that is different in music from mainland Japan and Amami in particular the intervalic content of the scales used. The chief

pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many an ...

used in mainland Japan, for example, uses scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, also known as Do, Re, Mi, So, and La in the Kodály system of solfeggio. This structure avoids

half step A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...

intervals by eliminating the fourth and seventh scale degrees. In contrast, music from Okinawa is abundant in the half steps. Common structures used in Okinawan music are a pentatonic scale utilizing scale degrees 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, or Do, Mi, Fa, So, Ti, or a hexatonic scale with the addition of the second scale degree, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, or Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, Ti. Half steps occur between the third and fourth (Mi and Fa), and also the seventh and first (Ti and Do) scale degrees. In particular, the interval from 7 to 1, or Ti to Do is very common. A folk tune can often be recognized as being Okinawan by noting the presence of this interval.

Notable Okinawan songs

Okinawan musicians and musical ensembles

Traditional (Classical/Koten Ongaku)

* Choichi Terukina -Living National Treasure * Kishun Nishie -Living National Treasure

Traditional (Folk/Min'yô)

* Sadao China * Rinshō Kadekaru * Misako Koja * Nēnēs * Seijin Noborikawa * Misako Oshiro

Pop

The Boom ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

– rock band from

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 817,192 (1 January 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the ...

, known for the song '' Shima Uta'' *

Cocco is a female Japanese pop / folk rock singer. Early life Cocco went to many ballet auditions, hoping to become a professional ballerina. She went to singing auditions to earn the traveling expenses for a ballet audition in Tokyo. She did not ...

* High and Mighty Color * HY * Shoukichi Kina & Champloose *

Mongol800 is a Japanese three-piece punk rock band from Urasoe, Okinawa, Japan formed in 1998. When the members were aged 19, the band released their first album. In 2001, despite low commercial attention, they sold over two-million records from the alb ...

Rimi Natsukawa is a Japanese singer. She is best known for her 2001 single "Nada Sōsō." Childhood Natsukawa was born in Ishigaki, the largest city in the Yaeyama Islands chain. From a young age she enjoyed singing, and wanted to be a singer after hearin ...

Orange Range are a 5-member Japanese rock band, based in Okinawa, Japan. Formed in 2001, the band began with Spice Music and later signed with Sony Music Japan's gr8! records division in 2003. The band left gr8! records in 2010 to start their own label, S ...

* Rinken Band * Ryukyu Underground - A duo fusing traditional Okinawan music with Electronica genres such as Dub. *

DA PUMP is a Japanese boy band made up of lead vocalist, Issa Hentona and MCs Ken Okumoto, Yukinari Tamaki and Shinobu Miyara. The band formed as students at Okinawa Actors School in 1996. They made their debut on the Avex Trax subsidiary avex tune un ...

Fuzzy Control A fuzzy control system is a control system based on fuzzy logic—a mathematical system that analyzes analog input values in terms of logical variables that take on continuous values between 0 and 1, in contrast to classical or digital logic, ...

* RYUU-unit * Ryukyudisko * Fujiko Shuri

Media

References

External links

Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai: Okinawan Music
– audio selections {{DEFAULTSORT:Okinawan music