Variations on a Theme of Kariboshikiriuta was commissioned by the Sanshu Public Interest Club for its 100th Anniversary and Meiji Restoration 150th Anniversary concert. The Sanshu Club is a gathering of people from Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures given to documenting and sharing Sanshu history, culture and tradition.

The concert celebrated the foundation's centennial and promotes the dissemination of Ryukyu, Satsuma, and Hyuga folk songs throughout Japan (via maritime trade) using commentary and performance. The commission requested a work based on folk music from those prefectures.

Kariboshikiriuta, a folksong from Takachiho district in Miyazaki prefecture, is a labor song sung when harvesting broadleaf bamboo and thatch growing in the mountains in autumn. The composer wrote the piece with variations, imagining the song echoing throughout the mountains of Takachiho. It consists of a short intro theme, six variations and coda.