The lyrics of traditional Okinawan songs were found to record past climate and geological history of the Ryukyu Islands (now called Okinawa Prefecture, Japan), according to a new study by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Earth scientist and fellow Ryukyuan music practitioners. Their study was published in Geoscience Communication and was selected as an Editor’s Choice article by the journal’s publisher.

“This paper is a proof-of-concept for using classical Ryukyuan music as records of Indigenous knowledge,” said Justin Higa, lead author of the study and postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). “This work aims to show how science and culture are not two distinct entities, but can be combined to teach both Indigenous arts and Indigenous science.

Read more about it in the Oct. 15, 2025, University of Hawa‘i News article.