The mukkuri is a traditional Japanese plucked idiophone indigenous to the Ainu. It is made from bamboo and is 10 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. Sound is made by pulling the string and, similar to a Jew's harp, vibrating the reed as it is placed in the performer's mouth.[1]
In 1964 the national broadcast station NHK recorded a film 北方民族の楽器 (Hoppō minzoku no gakki, Musical Instruments of the People of the North).[2] Umeko Andō (November 20, 1932 ‐ July 15, 2004) was a prominent figure who also sang Upopo Ainu songs and recorded them on CDs. A DVD titled けうとぅむ (keutumu) was produced to introduce Ando's life published post mortem in April 2006 by Education Board, Makubetsu, Hokkaido. Shigiko Teshi was another prominent Mukkuri player.
Daisuke Hare (1965-) played with Ando after he apprenticed under her. Hare organized the first mukkuri competition in 2004 after he visited harpists in the Sakha Republic in 2003.
Akira Ifukube, noted for the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies, visited Ainu villages many times during his childhood. in 1997, Ifukube invited Umeko Ando to play for his biographical TV drama 北の交響曲 (Kitano Kōkyōkyoku, "Symphony of the North") produced and aired by Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting (UHB).
For many years since the 1960s, audio recordings of Ainu traditional music seldom included Mukkuri sounds. The audio recording of indigenous music of the world in 1973 did not include Ainu music, but planned to publish them as a unique set, which was published with 3 audio CDs and a booklet.[3][4] Umeko Ando made the most recordings of Ainu music:
A sampling album "Spirits from Ainu" included the song "Inishieno Ibuki" which used Ando's singing voice, and that song was used in a visual DVD commemorating the designation of Shiretoko Cape as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage.[9]
Mukkuri is often accompanied by tonkori, a plucked string instrument.
