Iso Kaaari Irehte (Bear Trap Rhythm)

OKI “Iso Kaaari Irehte (Bear Trap Rhythm)”

The Ainu multi-instrumentalist shares a video for his interpretation of a Hokkaido folk song written for bear ceremonies

“The original version of this song was recorded in 1962 and performed by Ume Nishihira (Ainu name Suka),” says indigenous Ainu musician Oki Kano, aka OKI, over email. “The song represents a bear moving around in a cage while making clawing sounds. It would have been sung at bear-sending rituals in eastern Hokkaido.” On “Iso Kaaari Irehte (Bear Trap Rhythm)” OKI plays the tonkori – a five-stringed instrument thought to have arrived in the main Ainu community of Hokkaido from the island of Sakhalin, after the latter was annexed by Russia after the Second World War.