Okinawan: Folk Music of Japan

The Umui religious songs, like shima uta, dance songs and particularly the kachashi, lively celebratory music, were all famous Okinawan folk music that are different from the mainland Japanese folk music in many ways.

source of picture: outsiderjapan.pbworks.com

First, Okinawa traditional music is often followed by the sanshin whereas in mainland Japan, the shamisen accompanies instead, other Okinawan instruments include the samba (which brings a clicking sound similar to that of the castanets), taiko and a sharp finger whistling known as yubi-bue.

Secondly, the tonality, a pentatonic scale that coincides with the major pentatonic scale of the western musical disciplines is often heard in the min’yo from the main islands of Japan. In this pentatonic scale the subdominant and the leading tone (which is the scale degree of 4 and 7 of the western major scale) are omitted, resulting in a musical scale with no half-steps between each of the note. (Do, Re, Mi. Sa, La in solfeggio or scale degree 1,2,3,5 and 6) Okinawan min’yo, though, is considered by scales that include the half-steps omitted in the said pentatonic scale, when analyzed in the western discipline of the music, in fact the most common scale is used in Okinawan min’yo which include the scale degree of 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7.