OKI (Hokkaido, Jp)

After a long time estranged from his Ainu indigenous roots as a young man, Oki (Oki Kano) led a fascinating journey towards them. After moving to New York in the 1980s, he got a taste of the global and sought out for his belonging once he returned to Hokkaido: that is when he taught himself to play the tonkori –– five string lute bound to Ainu culture, part of his heritage –– and never looked back.
The result is a visionary amalgamation of indigenous Ainu music with global vocabularies.

A balancing act held together by traditional strings, peppered with jangly tones of sunny dispositions –– just listen to Yaykatekar Dub (Love Dub) and you will recognise this merge right away. OKI’s performances (both live and recorded) bring the imperishable force of Ainu music, languages and traditions into currency.

Received with great acclaim by international press – from The Guardian and Mojo to The Wire and The Quietus –– Tonkori in the Moonlight (2022) is a fine display of the enthralling power of the tonkori. Oki’s music carries the heft of ancestrality: his father was renowned Ainu wood sculptor Bikki Sunazawa and he continues to connect with heritage with his production ventures alongside Ainu elder singer Umeko Ando. OKI’s music is nothing short from intergenerational magic: it is played with the tenderness of someone who consciously and intentionally embraces their languages and knowledges eager to expand and transmit them.
In OKI’s multi-layered and beautiful pieces, the once outlawed Ainu culture converses with transnational traditions from dub to funk. Through this dialogue of global traditions, Ainu knowledges come back full force, never to be erased.