Fences / Wesley Ueunten

fences download (4:16 / mp3 / 5.30MB) words + music (Kankara Sanshin) by Wesley Ueunten Japanese lyrics from Okinawan folklore recorded at annen annex, oakland ca. mixed by shing02 + shuichi sugimoto illustration by urban demographics
lyrics	translation
Everywhere that I can see Are chain link fences, barbed wire Are we inside, are we outside I can't tell, can you? Overseas bases, internment camps Prison industry, Gatekeeper Guantanamo, Henoko Security, not for you and me I've learned to close my heart To shut myself in, shut myself out I've build my own fence I don't feel, but yet I bleed Umuti kayuraba Shinrin ichiri Awan muduraba Mutu nu shinri Tukee yo hijamitin Tiruchichi ya, hituchi Aman nagayura Kiyu nu suru ya Even in these darkest times Love will shine, shine through No fence can hold us in What goes up must come down, what goes around comes around	If our thoughts are connected a thousand miles become one If I come back without seeing you you will be a thousand miles away We are apart with a sea between us but the same moon shines upon us we are gazing up at the same sky tonight

Kankara Sanshin Sanshin is a Shamisen-like three-string instrument mainly played in or around Okinawa. Kankara means cans. It is a bit difficult to tune the Kankara Sanshin, however that gives it a distinct, melancholic sound. The emotional folk songs of Okinawa represent the blues of Japan.
	Most People associate the Kankara Sanshin with the period right after the Battle of Okinawa (April to June 1945), when Okinawans had no materials to make sanshin and used cans cast off by the American military.
	However, according to oral histories, early immigrants to Hawaii, as well as internees in Japanese Latin-American internment camps, created sanshins using materials similar to the kankara.

Wesley Ueunten Profile
	Wesley is an Okinawa Sansei (third generation) born in Kauai, Hawaii. He lived in Okinawa and Japan for 10 years and learned Sanshin while he was living in Kawasaki, from Kenichi Nadoyama Sensei. He now lives with his family in Albany, CA and takes part of a sanshin group called GenYuKai. He is also completing a Ph.D. in ethnic studies at University of California at Berkeley. contact wesley

special thanks to Gina Hotta (RIP) for playing the song on Radio Apex, KPFA 94.1 !