Oki

Oki Kano (加納 沖), known professionally as OKI, is a Japanese musician of mixed Japanese Ainu ancestry.

Oki was born in Hokkaido in 1957, and grew up in Kanagawa Prefecture.

He studied industrial arts at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.

His father, Bikki Sunazawa, was a renowned wood sculptor.

Oki grew up with his Japanese mother, and did not know of his Ainu heritage or meet his father until he was an adult.

From 1987 to 1992 Oki lived in New York City working as a special effects technician for movies.

Back in Japan in 1993, a cousin gave him a tonkori, an Ainu stringed instrument, and he slowly taught himself how to play it.

He uses it in his performances and mixes traditional Ainu music with reggae, dub and other styles of world music.

He also plays guitar and traditional Ainu percussion instruments.

Oki performs frequently in Japan, and he has also taken part in a number of folk music festivals in other countries.

In 2006, he released the album Kíla & Oki with the Irish band, Kíla.

His earlier solo albums include collaborations with the female Ainu singing group Marewrew, who sometimes appear in his live show as well.

As of 2022, he played with his own Oki Dub Ainu Band, which plays mostly traditional Ainu songs in an electric style which mixes dub rhythms with tonkori playing.

During live concerts, he either plays with the Dub Ainu Band or as a solo acoustic act, singing and playing the tonkori.

He also plays tonkori in the collaborative group Amamiaynu.