The lyrics of traditional Okinawan songs were found to record past climate and geological history of the Ryukyu Islands (now called Okinawa Prefecture, Japan), according to a new study by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Earth scientist and fellow Ryukyuan music practitioners. Their study was published in Geoscience Communication and was selected as an Editor's Choice article by the journal's publisher.
"This paper is a proof-of-concept for using classical Ryukyuan music as records of Indigenous knowledge," said Justin Higa, lead author of the study and postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). "This work aims to show how science and culture are not two distinct entities, but can be combined to teach both Indigenous arts and Indigenous science."
Bridge between science, culture
The study assessed a repertoire of Indigenous Ryukyuan classical music that documented the 18th–century ocean voyages of envoys from the Ryukyu Kingdom and the winds, waves, and volcanoes they observed along the way. With Higa's geologic background and the musical expertise of master instructors June Uyeunten and Kenton Odo, the authors worked together to combine Indigenous Ryukyuan knowledge in song with Western scientific knowledge in the scientific literature to find where the knowledge matched.
The authors are all classical Ryukyuan music practitioners with the Ryukyu Koten Afuso Ryu Ongaku Kenkyu Choichi Kai USA, Hawaiʻi Chapter, a music school with groups on Oʻahu, Maui, and Kauaʻi and in Los Angeles.
Matching ancient observations with modern data
By comparing these observations with 20th– to 21st–century scientific literature, they found wind directions in the songs match seasonal changes following the East Asian Monsoon season and that rough ocean conditions may be related to Pacific Ocean circulation patterns and typhoons in the past and currently. They also interpreted a record of an 18th–century volcanic eruption on an isolated island.
"Indigenous knowledge, tied to the land someone is most familiar with, is one avenue for applying place-based learning to make complex environmental science more accessible to general learners," said Higa. "Identifying sources of Indigenous knowledge, by the knowledge holders/practitioners themselves, is a unique opportunity to make new connections between art and science, improve how we connect science to the daily lives of Indigenous Peoples, and ensure the correct interpretation and usage of Indigenous knowledge."
With 2025 marking the 125th anniversary of Okinawan immigration to Hawaiʻi, incorporating geoscience and his Okinawan heritage in this publication is especially meaningful to Higa.
"I hope this work can help connect the descendants of Okinawan immigrants in Hawaiʻi, who generations later, may not speak the language, with the arts and knowledge recorded in these songs," said Higa. "More of these descendants may then be inspired to become scientists or Indigenous practitioners, or both."
In the future, the authors hope to catalog more classical and folk Ryukyuan songs to document additional historical records of environmental science, including water resources, ocean life, and flora and fauna.
The post Okinawan songs uncover centuries of climate, geological history first appeared on University of Hawaiʻi System News
