Okinawan Music

Okinawan music is the music of Okinawa and the wider Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, centred on the three-stringed snakeskin sanshin lute, the shima uta island songs and a distinctive pentatonic scale rich in half steps. It spans court music of the Ryukyu Kingdom, village folk song and the post-war popular styles that fused sanshin with rock, reggae and dance music. Singers such as *Rinsho Kadekaru* and *Shoukichi Kina*, whose band *Champloose* electrified the sanshin, carried the sound worldwide, while groups such as *Rinken Band* and *Nenes* brought its melodies to mainstream Japanese audiences.