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Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-139
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-139
31 Jan 2025
 | 31 Jan 2025
Status: this preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscience Communication (GC).

Place-based science from Okinawa: 18th-century climate and geology recorded in Ryukyuan classical music

Justin T. Higa, June Y. Uyeunten, and Kenton A. Odo

Abstract. Indigenous knowledge can record scientific observations of specific “places” that may be difficult to preserve in the geologic record. Such place in place-based science highlights issues local to a learner for engaging audiences with the scientific problems relevant to their communities. Here, we focus on a repertoire of indigenous Ryukyuan classical music to examine place-based observations of 18th-century climate and geology in the Ryukyu Islands (21st-century Okinawa Prefecture, Japan). Comparing environmental conditions recorded in songs with 20th–21st-century studies, we find that surface winds, ocean currents, typhoons, and volcanism from lyrics parallel their respective observations in the scientific record. This novel perspective of art and science highlights the relevancy of Ryukyuan classical music in teaching contemporary issues such as climate change and natural hazards. Thus, Ryukyuan indigenous knowledge can play an innovative role in science engagement for 21st-century Okinawans in Okinawa Prefecture and their diasporic kinsfolk worldwide.

Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
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Indigenous Ryukyuan music records the historical climate and geology of the Ryukyu Kingdom...
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