Yasukatsu Oshima, a native of the Yaeyama Islands, southwest of Okinawa's main island, is a stubborn man. Since emerging as a solo artist in the early 1990s, he has recorded and performed only songs known as shima-uta (island folk songs). However, Oshima is not a tradition-bound purist. His latest album, titled "Island Journey," which was released in April, showcases not only his talents as an inheritor of the centuries-old shima-uta tradition, but also as a creator of contemporary shima-uta.
This reworking of the ancient art form can heard in the opening track, "Kaisare," on which Oshima sings in Okinawan dialect and plays the sanshin, a traditional three-stringed musical instrument, while his friend Ayano Kinjo, of the pop duo Kiroro, provides a piano accompaniment. The sanshin's buoyant twang gives the song an unmistakable island sound, but his reinterpretation of this Okinawan standard, which slows down the old song's original tempo, gives it a new, mellow flavor.
"This album is composed mainly of old Okinawan folk songs," Oshima told The Japan Times, "but this time I invited several guest musicians so that I could perform the songs in a contemporary vein."