I could find Tonkori in his hands. This is the only stringed instrument of Sakhalin Ainu. The body is long and thin and looks like a stick base guitar. The Tonkori has five strings, but it is impossible to change tunes by holding them as you play a usual guitar. The sound is very simple because ticking five strings is the only way of playing this instrument.

A lady next to Oki was supporting him by singing Upopo (means a song in Ainu language) and playing Mukkuri (a mouth harp). I guess it was the first time to experience the sound of Tonkori for almost all audiences.

The concert started with the audiences’ great attention. After the lady sang Upopo and played Mukkuri several times, Oki’s Tonkori joined. The timbre of it was simple but created very expressive sound even though it is basically able to create five sounds because of a shape of it.

According to fans of Tonkori, these unstable sounds are one of the attractions of it. I had a fresh feeling as I experienced high quality art unlike feeling a stressed after listening to techno music at a nightclub or a virtual ambient relax feeling. In addition, I felt embarrassed because I had no knowledge about this music that was born in Hokkaido where I was also born and grown up.

Digital is a method that allows to show only “0” and “1” as a result. It has made a creative environment simple but I think there is something we lost. I could not help but think about this while listening to the attractive Tonkori timbre.

OKI LIVE
Date: June 1st, 2002
Place: SOSO CAFE
Address: 1F Sansei Bld. South 1 West 13, Chuo-ku, Sapporo
soso@shift.jp.org
https://www.shift.jp.org/soso/