The Ainu people of northern Japan have an autonomous musical tradition.

Genres include the oldest, yukar (mimicry), which is a form of epic poetry, and upopo, in which "the second contrapuntal voice had to imitate the musical formula in the first contrapuntal voice (not heard until the last moment), at an interval much shorter than that in our western canons, since the second voice attacks the preceding musical formula before the first voice has finished it." (Nattiez 1990, p.71)

The most famous contemporary performer of Ainu music appears to be the revivalist Oki.

External links

• Vanishing Ainu of North Japan excerpt by Takakura, Shin'ichiro (Oct 1966)
• Japan Times: Ainu group brings to U.S. musical message of peace By Carolyn Nardiello

Source

• Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0691027145.