Shima Uta (The Boom song)

Shima uta (島唄, lit. "island songs") is also a genre of music from the Ryukyu Islands.

Shima Uta is a 1992 song by the Japanese band "THE BOOM". It was written by the lead singer, Miyazawa Kazufumi, based on his impressions from visiting Okinawa for a photo shoot. It is the band's best selling song, well known throughout Japan and Argentina, and one of the most widely known songs associated with Okinawa. Despite the title Shima Uta (島唄), which is also a term for traditional music from Ryukyu Islands, the band members are all from Yamanashi Prefecture, and the song uses a mix of modern pop and rock styles as well as min'yō. Okinawan musical instruments and Okinawan vocabulary have been incorporated into the song.

Notable Versions of Shima Uta

The song has been covered by many artists, including Gackt, Natsukawa Rimi, Alfredo Casero and Plastiko.

Gackt

The 1992 Gackt version features taiko drums, traditional dancers and singers, and an elderly sanshin player/min'yō singer. Gackt is a trained min'yō singer and sang in the traditional shima uta style, as did Miyazawa in the studio version of the song.

Alfredo Casero

The 2001 version by Casero won three awards at Premios Gardel, the "Argentine Grammy Awards." In 2002 the Casero version was voted the theme song for the Argentina football (soccer) team 's FIFA World Cup games in Korea and Japan. It was included on the official FIFA album despite the fact that it was not a new release. A Japanese football fan club, Ultras Nippon, also used Shima Uta as their theme song. "Shima Uta" was the first Argentine hit song to be sung entirely in Japanese.It stayed on the top of the charts for six months. Miyazawa and Casero sing together in concert when Miyazawa tours Brazil and Argentina.

Natsukawa Rimi

The Okinawan folksinger's lushly orchestrated version of "Shima Uta" was the theme song for Cardcaptor Sakura, a 90s anime.

Origin of the Lyrics

In a 2003 interview for fRoots, Miyazawa explained that he got the idea for the song after speaking with Okinawan survivors of the US invasion of Okinawa during [[World War II].

for the first time saw a deeper side of Okinawa. I saw some remains of the war there and visited the Himeyuri Peace and Memorial Museum and learnt about the female students who became like voluntary nurses looking after injured soldiers. There were no places to escape from the US army in Okinawa, so they had to find underground caves. Although they hid from the US army, they knew they would be searching for them, and thought they would be killed, so they moved form one cave to another. Eventually they died in the caves. I heard this story from a woman who was one of these girls and who survived. I was still thinking about how terrible it was after I left the museum. Sugar canes were waving in the wind outside the museum when I left and it inspired me to write a song. I also thought I wanted to write a song to dedicate to that woman who told me the story. Although there was darkness and sadness in the underground museum, there was a beautiful world outside. This contrast was shocking and inspiring.

In another interview, Miyazawa explained that most Okinawan casualties were not caused by American troops, but by Japan's instructions to commit suicide rather than surrender.

"When the United States were about to invade Japan during the Second World War II, the country was instructing people telling them, 'before USA has you, kill yourself'. In Okinawa 200.000 people died. And most of them weren't killed by USA... They hid under the earth."

While the song does not specify who the people being separated are, Miyazawa stated in the 2002 interview, "It is about the separation of a man and a woman, a separation that they couldn't control, and didn't want."

Okinawan Musical Influence

Miyazawa first heard Okinawan-influenced music from Haruomi Hosono in the 1970s. Later, he asked friends to bring him tapes from the island, as Okinawan music was not readily available in Japan. Miyazawa said in the 2003 interview,

There are two types of melody in the song Shima Uta, one from Okinawa and the other from Yamato (Japan). I wanted to tell the truth that Okinawa had been sacrificed for the rest of Japan, and Japan had to take responsibility for that. Actually, I wasn't sure that I had the right to sing a song with such a delicate topic, as I'm Japanese, and no Okinawan musicians had done that. Although Hosono started to embrace Okinawan music into his own music early on, it was in a different way to what I was trying to do. Then I asked [Okinawan rock star and peace activist]Shokichi Kina what he thought I should do about Shima Uta and he said that I should sing it. He told me that Okinawan people are trying to break down the wall between them and Yamato (mainland) Japanese, so he told me I should do the same and encouraged me to release Shima Uta."

Miyazawa plays the sanshin, the Okinawan precursor to the shamisen, when singing Shima Uta in concert.

Discography

Main article: The Boom

• 1992 - Shima Uta (Uchināguchi version), 9th single
• 1993 - Shima Uta (Original version), 11th single
• 2002 - Shima Uta Shima Uta, 26th single