, known professionally as OKI, is a Japanese musician of Ainu ancestry. He was born in

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, and grew up in

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

. He studied

industrial arts Industrial arts is an educational program that features the fabrication of objects in wood or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools. Industrial Arts are commonly referred to as Technology Education. It may include small engine rep ...

at the

Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, scul ...

. His father, Bikki Sunazawa, was a renowned wood sculptor. Oki uses the

tonkori The is a plucked string instrument played by the Ainu people of Hokkaidō, northern Japan and Sakhalin. It generally has five strings, which are not stopped or fretted but simply played "open". The instrument is believed to have been developed ...

, an Ainu stringed instrument, in his performances and mixes traditional

Ainu music Ainu music is the musical tradition of the Ainu people of northern Japan. They did not have written words, so they have inherited the folklore and the laws conducted between ethnic orally such as tales and legends with music. The oral Ainu c ...

with

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

, dub and other styles of world music. He also plays guitar and traditional Ainu percussion instruments. Oki performs frequently in Japan, and he has also taken part in a number of folk music festivals in other countries. In 2006, he released the album ''

Kíla & Oki Kíla is a 1987 Irish folk music/ world music group from the Irish language secondary school, Coláiste Eóin in County Dublin. Band History Kíla began in 1987 in the secondary in Coláiste Eoin, in the first year they busked nearly every wee ...

'' with the Irish band,

Kíla Kíla is a 1987 Irish folk music/world music group from the Gaelscoil, Irish language secondary school, Coláiste Eoin, Coláiste Eóin in County Dublin. Band History Kíla began in 1987 in the secondary in Coláiste Eoin, in the first year they ...

. His earlier solo albums include collaborations with the female Ainu singing group Marewrew, who sometimes appear in his live show as well. More recently, he has played with his own Oki Dub Ainu Band, which plays mostly traditional Ainu songs in an electric style which mixes dub rhythms with tonkori playing. During live concerts, he either plays with the Dub Ainu Band or as a solo acoustic act, singing and playing the tonkori. He also plays tonkori in the collaborative group Amamiaynu.

Works

;Albums, singles *''Hankapuy'' (feat. Umeko Ando)　March 20, 1999 *''Kamuy Kor Nupurpe'' May 27, 2001 *''No-One'S Land''　June 2, 2002 *''Dub Ainu''　October 17, 2004 *''Tonkori''　May 12, 2005 *" Tóg É Go Bog É" (Single)　February 17, 2006 (Kíla and OKI) *"

"(album), 2006 (Kíla and OKI) *, Greatest hits　- February 17, 2006 *''Dub Ainu Deluxe''　July 16, 2006 *''Oki Dub Ainu Band'' December 3, 2006 *"Eternal Dub Serenade" May 30, 2007 *''Sakhalin Rock'' July 14, 2010 *''Himalayan Dub'' April 16, 2011 *''Tonkori in the Moonlight'' February 4, 2022 ;Collaborations *''IHUNKE''　- Umeko Ando　- May 20, 2001 *''UPOPO SANKE''　- Umeko Ando　- December 14, 2003 * - OKI meets

Misako Oshiro is a feminine Japanese given name. It can have many different meaning depending on the kanji characters used and may also be written using the hiragana and katakana writing systems. Different variations of the name include those listed below. Pos ...

- March 14, 2012 ;Picture book * **Story - ,　Illustrations - OKI ;Television *Opening narration for ''

K-tai Investigator 7 is a 2008 Japanese television drama which aired from April 2, 2008 to March 18, 2009. It was a joint collaboration between WIZ and Production I.G. One of the episodes was directed by Takashi Miike. it is described as a science fiction tokusatsu a ...

References

External links

Official website

OKI Profile on La Fábrica de Ideas

OKI at HearJapan
403 Forbidden link) 1957 births Ainu music Japanese Ainu people Japanese male musicians Living people Musicians from Hokkaido Musicians from Kanagawa Prefecture Ainu artists Japanese folk singers {{ainu-bio-stub

Works

See also

References

External links