Ainu music is the musical tradition of the Ainu people of northern Japan. Ainu people have no indigenous system of writing, and so have traditionally inherited the folklore and the laws of their culture orally, often through music.

The oral Ainu culture includes various genres, including upopo , lighthearted ballads on daily affairs and rituals often accompanied by traditional Ainu instrumentation, and yukar (mimicry), a form of rhythmic epic poetry often supported by light percussion.

The contents of these ballads were historically an important source of understanding daily life as well as various traditions and habits of the Ainu people, and remain today an important part of the Ainu cultural identity and inheritance, as seen in efforts by performers such as Oki, the most famous contemporary performer of Ainu music.

The most useful English-language overview of Ainu music (with recordings and transcriptions) is by Chiba Nobuhiko.

Ainu music carries spiritual resonance in almost all of its forms, and it has played an important role in both the cultural history and the cultural renaissance of the Ainu people. Almost every type of Ainu song is sacred, and even the musical instruments are said to be imbued with souls. Traditional Ainu music can be divided into two major groups – everyday songs and epic songs. Everyday songs in Ainu tradition were sung in many situations and on an impromptu basis. They were often accompanied by the two most prevalent Ainu musical instruments: the tonkori, a plucked zither, and the mukkuri, a jaw harp played by women.^{[citation needed]}

These everyday songs are short, fairly simple, and center on an activity like a game or work. The act of singing is itself used as a game in some instances, such as Rekuhkara (Ainu throat-singing) competitions between women. Work songs are rhythmic, with lyrics and melodies based on the work with which they are sung. However, even such everyday songs have sacred rather than mundane meanings. "Chants like the kar upopo (sake-making song) and the iyuta upopo (the pounding song)…are not labor songs; rather, they are magic-oriented, for they are sung to ward off evil spirits". Short, everyday songs are also a way of praying. These prayer songs are (or were) performed regularly before meals, after a fishing trip, to ask for luck in hunting, and in many other contexts. Unfortunately, material about everyday songs is very difficult to obtain. Many have never been recorded.^{[citation needed]}

Ainu epic songs, yukar, are performed as long monologues. The singer performs the song entirely from memory, and, traditionally, in a "non-formal" setting such as a friend's house or before the hearth at a gathering. While somewhat casual, these epics are still more formal than the short prayer songs mentioned earlier. Both men and women recite Ainu epics, though the vocal qualities of women are considered preferable to those of men. The epic songs are fairly rhythmic melodic chants. The voice of the singer usually fluctuates within words, and phrases and sentences are distinguished by the melody. Singers strive for their audience to understand every word. The epic is unaccompanied by musical instruments, though at times both the singer and the listener might tap repni, or simple blocks of wood, against the hearth or the floor to help keep time and punctuate the epic. Certain paintings also show these epics being performed lying down, with the singer beating time on his or her abdomen with the hands, but this practice has faded into obscurity.

Epics themselves take several different forms. Following Philippi's model and dividing them in two different ways, they can be distinguished by both subject and style. Philippi divides epic subjects into two groups: mythic narratives and heroic narratives. Mythic narratives are those epics featuring origin stories and stories of deities, while heroic narratives are those narratives featuring the cultural heroes of the Ainu. Mythic narratives can be told either from the point of view of a human observer or from the point of view of the divine participant. One of the most distinctive aspects of Ainu epics is this first person god point of view. Heroic narratives feature one of several major culture heroes, or recurring protagonists of mythical origins, such as Kotan-Kor-Kamui, or the Owl God. Though these culture heroes are often presented as gods, they are more human than they seem. They are analogous to the Navajo and Apache Coyote; while he is a god, he is representative of human interests and foibles. Stylistically, epics can be divided into two more categories. Some epics are novelistic and feature a set chain of events involving gods and humans, while others, which Philippi refers to as parodies, feature abnormal situations – unexplained phenomena and dreams, presented without a clear chronological narrative. These "parody" epics are very rare.^{[citation needed]}