Preservation through dissemination

The Ainu people of Japan’s northern islands are a slowly disappearing society -- in part dying out, in part assimilating into the dominant Japanese culture. Only recently have efforts been made to preserve their music, which is distinctly different from that of Japan.

Oki, the son of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, has been the most prominent performer in taking the music beyond musicological archiving and to the concert stage. His appearance Thursday at the Japan America Theatre was a beguiling display of Ainu music’s fascination, and of its capacity to move from its functional community origins to the arena of cross-cultural entertainment.

Oki himself was the principal guiding force in this transition, which was energized by his amiable manner, his insightful explanations of Ainu music, culture and spirituality, and his expertise on the tonkori, an indigenous, six-stringed Ainu instrument.

He was aided by a six-piece ensemble, with particularly strong contributions from singer Emi Toko (who also played the overtone-rich, harplike instrument called the mukkuri) and the powerful dancing and singing of Futoshi Ikabe.

The music included several groups of upopo, or traditional Ainu songs, tonkori melodies and original compositions by Oki. Most of the songs traced to the deep Ainu immersion in the natural world: a description of a fisherman persuading a salmon to give up its corporeal entity while freeing its spirit; a dance by Ikabe depicting an archer too enticed by a bird’s beauty to release his arrow; a song to celebrate the colorful fabrics that allow the Ainus to be seen by their kamuy deities.

But the most striking aspect of Oki’s presentation was its dissimilarity to Japanese styles and its apparent link to aboriginal music of the Pacific Islands, native America and eastern Siberia. Compelling in performance, it also suggested an intriguing area for anthropological study.