“The original version of this song was recorded in 1962 and performed by Ume Nishihira (Ainu name Suka),” says indigenous Ainu musician Oki Kano, aka OKI, over email. “The song represents a bear moving around in a cage while making clawing sounds. It would have been sung at bear-sending rituals in eastern Hokkaido.” On “Iso Kaaari Irehte (Bear Trap Rhythm)” OKI plays the tonkori – a five-stringed instrument thought to have arrived in the main Ainu community of Hokkaido from the island of Sakhalin, after the latter was annexed by Russia after the Second World War.

“Ume was born in Otasan, Sakhalin Island in 1901,” OKI continues, “and from Otasan village there lived a number of tonkori masters. There is a record that there was a tonkori master named Onowanku around 1860. When the Soviet Union occupied southern Sakhalin in 1945, Ume, like many Sakhalin Ainu, moved to Hokkaido.”

This song is featured on a new 11 track compilation of performances by OKI, released by Mais Um Discos. Called Tonkori In The Moonlight, the album features mostly traditional songs, but also forms part of OKI's ongoing experiments in blending folk with international influences, such as dub, reggae and African drumming.