Imagining Okinawa
Japanese pop musicians and Okinawan music
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v10i2.177Keywords:
cultural identity, Japan, music, musical style, OkinawaAbstract
Since the early 1970s, Okinawan styles have become popular throughout Japan and, to some extent, the rest of the world. This music has been performed both by native Okinawan musicians, and also by musicians from the Japanese mainland, drawn partly by the exoticness of this ‘Japanese other’. While modern-day Okinawan music has been considered from the perspective of Okinawan identity within a Japanese framework, the role of Japanese musicians in the recent Okinawan music boom has been overlooked. In this paper I present an overview of the activities of Japanese mainland musicians in their use of Okinawan musical material and, through an analysis of published interviews and writings by these musicians, I examine the cultural meanings that these musical expropriations have held. In addition, I argue that the activities of Okinawan musicians themselves have been greatly affected by mainland Japanese musicians, and that modern Okinawan music must be seen within a national musical context.
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Teruya, K. 2003. Uchina?nchu tokidoki Nihonjin [Okinawan, sometimes Japanese]. Gushikawa (Uruma): Yui Shuppan.
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China, S. 2006. Utama?i—Sho?wa Okinawa kayo? wo kataru [Utama?i—Telling the story of Okinawan song in the Showa period]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Currid, B. 1996. ‘ “Finally, I reach to Africa”: Ryuichi Sakamoto and Sounding Japan(ese)’. In Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture, ed. John W. Treat. Richmond: Curzon.
de Ferranti, H. 2008. ‘The Kyushu biwa Traditions’. In The Ashgate Research Companion to Japanese Music, eds Alison Tokita and David W. Hughes, 105–26. Aldershot: Ashgate.
De Musik Inter. 1998. Oto no chikara [Okinawa] Amami, Yaeyama, Gyakuryu?hen [The power of sound ‘Okinawa’—Amami, Yaeyama, back-flow edition]. Tokyo: Impact Shuppansha.
Denoon, D., M. Hudson, G. McCormack and T. Morris-Suzuki. 1996. Multicultural Japan: Palaeolithic to Postmodern. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gillan, M. 2008. ‘Treasures of the Island People: Tradition and Modernity in Yaeyaman Pop Music’. Asian Music, Journal of the Society for Asian Music 39.1: 42–68.
Hayward, P., and S. Kuwahara. 2008. ‘Transcience and Durability. Music Industry Initiatives, Shima Uta and the Maintenance of Amami Culture’. Perfect Beat 8.4: 44–63.
Hein, L., and M. Selden. 2003. Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Hook, G. D., and R. Siddle. 2003. Japan and Okinawa: Structure and Subjectivity. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
Hosokawa, S. 1999a. ‘Salsa no tiene frontera: Orquesta de la Luz and the Globalization of Popular Music’. Cultural Studies 3.3: 509–34.
—1999b. ‘Soy Sauce Music: Haruomi Hosono and Japanese Self-Orientalism’. In Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-war Popular Music, ed. Philip Hayward, 114–44. Sydney: John Libbey and Company.
Hughes, D. W. 2008. Traditional Folk Song in Modern Japan: Sources, Sentiment and Society/ David W. Hughes. Folkestone: Global Oriental.
Johnson, H. 2001. ‘Nationalisms and Globalization in Okinawan Popular Music: Ne?ne?zu and their Place in World Music Contexts’. In Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalization, ed. Roy Starrs, 359–73. Richmond: Japan Library.
—2004. ‘To and From an Island Periphery: Tradition, Travel and Transforming Identity in the Music of Ogasawara, Japan’. The World of Music 46.2: 79–98.
—2006. ‘Tsugaru Shamisen: From Region to Nation (and Beyond) and Back Again’. Asian Music 37.1: 75–100.
Kawai, R. 2007. Ju?ku no haru wo sagashite—uta ni kizamareta mo? hitotsu no sen’goshi [In search of Ju?ku no haru—another post-war history seen through a song]. Tokyo: Ko?dansha.
Kawamura, K. 1993. Umi wo wataru uta [The song that crossed the sea]. Tokyo: Takarajimasha.
Kitanaka, M. 1998. ‘Yamatonchu ga tsukutta uchina? kayo? [Okinawan songs by Mainland Japanese]’. In Uchina? no uta [Okinawan songs], ed. Tadashi Fujita, 47. Tokyo: On’gaku no Tomosha.
Kubota, M. 2006. Sekai no oto wo tazuneru [A journey to the sounds of the world]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
Kumada, S. 2005. ‘20 seiki Okinawa ni okeru Popyura? on’gaku no tenkai—Shin min’yo? kara Okinawa poppu e’ [The development of 20th century Okinawan pop music—from Shin min’yo? to Okinawa pop]. In Shominzoku no on'gaku wo manabu hito no tame ni, eds Tetsuo Sakurai and Nobuo Mizuno, 148–68. Kyoto: Sekai Shiso?sha.
Kyu?jin Okinawa. 2004. 65 nin ga kataru Okinawa iju? [Relocating to Okinawa—as told by 65 people]. Tokyo: Kabushikigaisha Janisu.
Lie, J. 2001. Multiethnic Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Mishima, W. 2008a. ‘Meijiki Okinawa no on’gakkai puroguramu ni okeru ‘min’yo?’ gainen no keisei (The formation of academic concepts of Okinawan traditional music: In the case of musical concerts held in modern Okinawan society from 1898 to 1912)’. MOUSA—Journal of Musicology, Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts 9: 87–100.
—2008b. ‘Sonoyama Tamihei (1877–1955): Piano dokuso?kyoku Okinawa min’o? kudochi varie ?shon (1911nen Okinawa)’, Nihon de deatta Saisho no yo?gaku-tachi. Concert program notes. Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, March 24.
Miyazawa, K. 2005. ‘Shima-uta wa kaze ni notta [Shima-uta rode on the wind]’. Kara kara 15 (Summer): 4–5.
Ogawa, H. 1995. ‘Nihon no Popyura? Ongaku ni Arawareta Okinawa’ [Okinawa in Japanese popular music]. In Oriento Genso? no Naka no Okinawa [Okinawa within the Oriental fantasy], ed. To?ru Fukazawa, 149–73. Tokyo: Kaifu?sha.
Ohsuga, T., and ASIAN BEATS CLUB. 1993. Eijan poppu myu?jikku no genzai—Asian Pop Music. Tokyo: Shinjuku Shobo?.
Rinken, T., and H. Matsumura. 1995. Nankuru-gurashi [Living for the moment]. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo?.
Roberson, J. E. 2001. ‘Uchinaa Pop—Place and Identity in Contemporary Okinawan Popular Music’. Critical Asian Studies 33.2: 211–42.
Sakamoto, R. 1993. On’gaku-shi. Tokyo: O?Ta Shuppan.
Sugimoto, Y. 1997. An Introduction to Japanese Society/Yoshio Sugimoto. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sugimoto, Y., and R. E. Mouer. 1989. Constructs for Understanding Japan. London and New York: Kegan Paul International.
Takahashi, M. 2006. ‘Okinawa popyura? on’gaku-shi no hensen—kaku janru no seisei wo chu?shin toshite’ (The history of Okinawan popular music: A process of emergence of a new music genre). Bulletin of Education, Kochi University 66: 161–76.
Tasaki, S. 1999. ‘Uruma Interview—Hosono Haruomi’. Uruma (May): 4–7.
Taylor, T. D. 1997. Global Pop: World Music, World Markets. New York and London: Routledge.
Teruya, K. 2003. Uchina?nchu tokidoki Nihonjin [Okinawan, sometimes Japanese]. Gushikawa (Uruma): Yui Shuppan.
Tomita, H. 1999. ‘THE BOOM Uruma Interview’. Uruma (July): 4–7.
Wade, B.C. 2005. Music in Japan: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
Williams, S. 2006. ‘Irish Music and the Experience of Nostalgia in Japan’. Asian Music XXXVIII: 101–19.
Published
2009-11-11
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Gillan, M. (2009). Imagining Okinawa: Japanese pop musicians and Okinawan music. Perfect Beat, 10(2), 177-195. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v10i2.177
