Ainu folk music

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Ainu music is the musical tradition of the Ainu people of northern Japan. Ainu people have no indigenous system of writing, and so have traditionally inherited the folklore and the laws of their culture orally, often through music.^[1]

The oral Ainu culture includes various genres, including upopo , lighthearted ballads on daily affairs and rituals often accompanied by traditional Ainu instrumentation, and yukar (mimicry), a form of rhythmic epic poetry often supported by light percussion.

The contents of these ballads were historically an important source of understanding daily life as well as various traditions and habits of the Ainu people, and remain today an important part of the Ainu cultural identity and inheritance, as seen in efforts by performers such as Oki, the most famous contemporary performer of Ainu music.

The most useful English-language overview of Ainu music (with recordings and transcriptions) is by Chiba Nobuhiko.^[2]