The Ocarina's past is pretty long so I'll explain only the most important parts.
The ocarina originated in Peru and the surrounding South American area around........ ok, lets say this: The Ocarina's the oldest wind instrument dating back almost 12,000 years! That's a LONG time and WAY before Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was even thought of!
They looked allot like the ones in the picture above. They were folk instruments, meant more for aesthetics than for serious playing and usually ranging between as few as 6 holes and as many as 9 holes.
Other similar instruments have been found in China and Japan and looked like this.
In China it's called a Xun and in Japan it's called a tsuchibue or "Earth Flute".
You see Mei and Satsuki playing these "Earth Flutes" in the Studio Ghibli movie "My Neighbor Totoro".
As Europeans started to move around more and more they soon brought some of these little guys back with them.
They stayed primarily as children's toys in Europe until the 19th century when an Italian named Giuseppe Donati who lived in Budrio transformed it from a child's whistle to a more comprehensive instrument, capable of playing an octave+2, therefore creating the modern ocarina!
You can usually tell an Italian Ocarina from it's Asian cousins because of the curious and noticeably pronounced "bump" on the left end of the ocarina.
Once Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time showed up that skyrocketed the Ocarina to new sales, heights and popularity!
As for all the different kinds of ocarinas there are in the world? Well, that will need to wait till the next blog post!
Later! A.M.
