Tetsuhiro Daiku

Tetsuhiro Daiku (大工哲弘) was born in 1949 on Ishigaki Island, the most populated of the Yaeyama islands. Situated 429km south-west of the main Okinawan island, these sub-tropical islands are the very last trickle of Japan. On a clear day it's possible to make out the mountains of Taiwan, just over 100 km to the east. Yaeyama shima uta (island songs) has fundamental differences to that of the main Okinawan island such as the scale and vocal technique. Yaeyama shima uta was just a vocal music sung outside while working in the fields. These working songs are called Yunta and Jiraba. The sansin, the 3 stringed snake-skin lute, at the heart of Okinawan shima-uta, was only incorporated into Yaeyama shima uta about 100m years ago, as opposed to Okinawa where the sanshin can be traced back 600 years. Yaeyama shima uta has close connections with south east Asia, as opposed to Chima. At the age of 19, Tetsuhiro Daiku moved to the main Okinawan island port city of Naha. He subsequently won several prizes for sanshin and fue (flute) playing as well as obtaining teaching licences. He currently runs three sanshin schools, and estimates to have taught over 1000 students. Testsuhiro Daiku has made several recordings since the 1970s mainly for local release in Okinawa. His acclaimed Japanese debut CD Yunta and Jiraba was released in 1993 and featured the acclaimed Japanese jazz saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu. The follow up CD Uchina Jinta was released in 1994 and was praised for it's enterprising mixture of Okinawan music and Japanese chindon (brass band street music) . He has performed with the Okinawan female quartet Nenes and appeared on the Nenes album, Narabi. Probably more than any other Okinawan musician, Tetsuhiro Daiku is an ambassador for Okinawan music. He has toured in Europe, America, South America and Africa. He is one of Okinawa's most respected musicians, and currently enjoying a large degree of success on the Japanese mainland. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.