Ryukyuan music

For a subgenre of Okinawan music, see Okinawan music § Classical music.

Ryukyuan music (琉球音楽, Ryūkyū ongaku), also called Nanto music (南島歌謡, Nantō kayō), is an umbrella term that encompasses diverse musical traditions of the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama Islands of southwestern Japan. The term of "Southern Islands" (南島, Nantō) is preferred by scholars in this field. The word "Ryūkyū" originally referred to Okinawa Island and has a strong association with the highly centralized Ryukyu Kingdom based on Okinawa Island and its high culture practiced by the samurai class in its capital Shuri. By contrast, scholars who cover a much broader region lay emphasis on folk culture.

Research history

Comprehensive studies on diverse musical traditions of the Southern Islands was done by Hokama Shuzen and his colleagues. Prior to that, the scopes of research were limited to each island group (Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, or Yaeyama), or even narrower areas. These studies were done under the heavy influence of folklorists Yanagita Kunio and Orikuchi Shinobu, who searched for the origin of Japanese culture in the Southern Islands.

The research on Okinawa's musical traditions was started by Tajima Risaburō at the end of the 19th century. He was followed by Katō Sango and Majikina Ankō among others. Under Tajima's influence, Iha Fuyū, who is known as the father of Okinawaology, conducted extensive research on a wide range of music genres of Okinawa, primarily by analyzing texts. Although he paid attention to Miyako and Yaeyama, his studies on these subfields remained in a preliminary stage, partly due to the limited availability of documented sources. In Miyako and Yaeyana, pioneering work in collecting and documenting folk songs was done by Inamura Kenpu and Kishaba Eijun, respectively.

Hokama Shuzen, a successor to Iha Fuyū, worked on integrating separate subjects by comparative methods while he himself conducted field studies that covered the whole island chain. He stressed the importance of Amami, which was usually ignored or marginalized in Okinawan narratives. His lifelong research resulted in the Nantō koyō (1971), the Nantō kayō taisei (1978–80) and the Nantō bungaku-ron (1995).

Classification

Hokama (1993)'s classification of songs of the Southern Islands, with some representative examples.

category	subcategory	Amami	Okinawa	Miyako	Yaeyama
child-related	warabe-uta
	lullaby, "humoring" songs
ritutal, festival, ceremony	ritutal	nagare-uta	umui, kwēna	tābi	tsïdï
		Hirase mankai	amawēda	fusa	mishagu pāsï
		omori	tirukuguchi	nīri
		yungutu		pyāshi
	community-related events	hachigatsu-odori uta	usudaiko	kuichā	yungutu
		mochi morai uta	eisā, shichigwachi-mōi	yotsudake-odori	ayō
		Kyōdara			jiraba
					yunta
					hōnensai
					setsu-matsuri
					tanetori-matsuri
	performing arts	Shodon shibai	Chondarā		Tarama hachigatsu-odori
		Yui hōnensai
		Yoron jūgoya-odori
	home events	shōgatsu-uta	tabigwēna	yometori-uta	yātakabi
		mankaidama	iwai-uta	tabipai no āgu	yomeiri-uta
		gozenfū	iezukuri-uta	iezukuri-uta	nenbutsu
		kuya	nenbutsu	shōgatsu āgu
work	work songs	itu	sagyō-uta	funakogi āgu	jiraba
		taue-uta		awatsuki āgu	yunta
				mugitsuki āgu
	performing arts		Kunjan sabakui	yonshī	kiyari
entertainment	recreational gatherings (asobi-uta)	shima-uta	myākunī	(kuichā)	fushiuta
		kudoki	kuduchi	āgu	tubarāma
		rokuchō	tsunahiki-uta	tōgani	sunkani
			kachāshī	shunkani	kudoki
			zōodori-uta	mōya
	new, popular music	shin min'yō	shin min'yō
	classical music		classical music

Musical traditions of the Southern Islands are so diversified that their connections are scarcely recognizable to unaccustomed eyes, but Hokama managed to organize them by cross-island group categories. The table above shows Hokama's classification presented in a volume of the Nihon min'yō taikan (1993). The table below is another classification by Hokama, which includes incantations and dramas.

Another classification of songs of the Southern Islands by Hokama (1995)

category	Amami	Okinawa	Miyako	Yaeyama
magical	kuchi	miseseru	kanfuchi	kanfuchi
	tahabë	otakabe	nigōfuchi	nigaifuchi
	ogami	tirukuguchi	nigari	takabi
	omori	nigēguchi	tābi	nigai
	yungutu	ugwan	majinaigutu	yungutu
	majinyoi	yungutu		jinnumu
		majinaigutu
epic	nagare-uta	kwēna	nagaāgu	ayō
	hachigatsuodori-uta	umui	kuichā-āgu	jiraba
		omoro		yunta
		tiruru
lyric	shima-uta (uta)	ryūka (uta)	kuichā	fushiuta
			tōgani	tubarāma
			shunkani	sunkani
drama	Shodon shibai	kumiodori	kumiodori	kumiodori
	kyōgen	kyōgen	kyōgen	kyōgen
		ningyō-shibai
		kageki

The first category, "magic", refers to incantations that are chanted or sung with the belief of kotodama. Kume Island of the Okinawa Islands has a large repository of rainmaking spells. For epic songs, Okinawa's kwēna narrates fishing, rice farming, rainmaking, sailing, shipbuilding, house-building, weaving, and other kinds of work in a local community. In addition to these themes, foundation myths, metalworking, war, trade, and funerals are covered by umui. Miyako's āgu is famous for heroic epics. Lyric songs include Amami's shima-uta, Okinawa's ryūka, and Miyako's tōgani, which all have short, fixed verse forms.

Historical development

Cross-island group classifications allowed scholars to investigate the historical development of musical traditions. It became a consensus that magical incantations were the oldest form, from which epic songs evolved. Lyric songs were the most innovative form and emerged from epic songs.

Ono Jūrō presented an evolutionary tree of the songs from the Southern Islands. He also made detailed analysis on song forms. According to Ono, the oldest form was a chain of 5-syllable couplets, which can be found in the Amami and Okinawa Islands but is absent from Miyako and Yaeyama. From the 5-syllable couplets, a 5-3 couplet, or the so-called kwēna form, emerged. The kwēna form spread from Okinawa to Miyako and Yaeyama. In the Ryukyu Kingdom on Okinawa Island, omoro was derived from the kwēna form in the 14th century but rapidly fell into decline at the end of the 16th century. Omoro was replaced by ryūka in Okinawa, which became shima-uta in Amami. Ryūka has a unique 8-8-8-6 syllable pattern. Ono considered that it was formed under the influence of kinsei kouta of mainland Japan, which has the 7-7-7-5 form. Hokama disagreed with Ono and hypothesized an internal development in Okinawa. Miyako and Yaeyama did not embrace the innovative form but created lyric songs using the older 5-3 couplets.

Since Ryūkyū was conquered by Satsuma Domain in the early 17th century, the samurai class in Shuri embraced the high culture of mainland Japan. The name of ryūka itself was coined to distinguish their own uta from waka. With the obvious influence from waka, they transformed songs to be sung into poems to be read.