1960s – 2020sPeak: 1990s
Okinawan Folk
About Okinawan Folk
The Ryukyuan musical tradition that grew up in the islands south of mainland Japan, built around the sanshin three-string lute and a distinct pentatonic scale. Shima uta (island songs) carried the memory of Okinawan kingdoms and wartime suffering, and the form crossed back into the Japanese mainland in the 1990s through bands like BEGIN and The Boom, who used Okinawan idioms to write some of the country's most enduring popular songs.