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MN: Now, she also got you started in dancing, because, is it because she thought you might be lonely?

AT: Well, my grandparents' intention was to keep me busy so that I don't get lonely. And I guess I liked the music and dance, because my friend's father, who lived next door neighbor, I would, every time he's playing, I would be hanging around their hedge and just listen to him as long, quite a long time. And they thought maybe they'll start me dancing, but of course there was no so-called teacher in our village, but there was this young lady who had experience in dancing, and they brought her and got me started at our house. And she was, she had a casualty from the war. She had no nose, so she always wore bandages. And my mother, I think my grandmother probably requested some bandage from Hawaii. So I remember when she got it, she would be taking to her, or she would get it from some friends that would take it to her so she can change as often as possible. And then, shortly after, there was next, our village sonchou's wife, was apparently working in the ryotei or had a little bit more formal dancing experience. So I started learning from her. But, of course, only opportunity we would get to dance was like parties, or they would have a, they would make a stage, each village would make a stage and they would have a full program during the Obon or something like that, so I would get to dance. But, you know, the costume and things that we would have is scrap from a U.S. military parachute or like gloves converted to tabi, and kimono was maybe somebody's kimono taken apart to make children's kimono. And fan was made from Christmas wrapping paper that we would find in the dump. And bamboo, we had a lot, so somebody would use bamboo screw, and they would glue fans. I wish I kept those, but probably with nori as actual nori, I think all the mouse and everything was probably all eaten, moth, everything was eaten up. [Laughs]

MN: Share with us, well, number one, what is the sanshin and how were people making sanshin after the war?

AT: Sanshin, actual sanshin is made out of snakeskin. And after the war, some of the men that was taken as refugee area, or some village, they would make sanshin with either wooden piece, piece of wood with can, tin can. Like Almond Roca sized can, and just use fishing string, rods, and bamboo, and very creative, and actually made the sound. And if you know how to play... right now, for nostalgic purpose, they do have that at souvenir stores. Now it's nicely colored, pink or yellow, but those were very unique, and I think that gave everybody joy and solace, too, after the war.

MN: What did you folks refer to this type of sanshin?

AT: Karakara sanshin. You know, karakara as the tin can making sound, karakara sanshin. That's what we referred to.

MN: And how, what's the difference between a sanshin and a shamisen?

AT: Shamisen, Japanese is catskin, and Okinawa is snakeskin. And I think the... Okinawa tuning is, I think, higher. Yeah, higher pitch. And Japanese use that bachi, shamoji-shaped, like this, Okinawa use this, like a nail extension, we call it tsume, it's like a tsume. They used to have, carve it out of ivory, but I don't think you can have ivory now, so ivory or they would be using goat's horn. In fact, I have that and I have the ivory one. Or now maybe the plastic mold might be... but it's something that you put on your finger and you pluck it with that. And Japanese one is with that, this kind of shape, almost like shamoji. Those are the... and I think Japanese shamisen is much longer and little bigger.

MN: And then you were talking about how you were, color your fingernails as girls. How did you do that?

AT: Yeah. We... there's a balsam flower that blossoms around, around now, almost Obon time. So you know, Obon season, we would have like tsunahiki, or, so everybody want to go and look best. So we would rub that, make it soft, and you put it on top of your fingers, and you leave it on like that. Or sometimes you rub that and mix it with shiquasa, a little lime, and then, and then put it on your finger. So that way, the color stays longer. So that's how we used to color. In fact, there's even a song about that. You use that to color your nail, but your parents' teaching is used to color your heart. They call it "Tinsagu no Hana."

MN: You know what's really amazing when I listen to you, is the war just happened, everything is devastated, and yet, people want to create art and perform. Where did people get this kind of energy?

AT: Well, because of war, they didn't have anything, no entertainment. I think, in fact, the people who were in this performing arts, they formed like a theatrical group. So they went from village to village, or they stayed in one area and they showcased maybe so many times a night, just to entertain the village people so that they would forget their suffering. It's something to calm themselves, and you know, so it was, it was on the part of these performance artists that used that as, to help people. So, in fact, the Majikina school that I'm studying, studied under, that Majikina, the father, Yuko Sensei, the headmaster, was one of those people who had that theater. And, of course, his daughters were all in dancing, so the family would be performing the whole theater. The dance, plus the kumiudui, doing plays, and all those whole evening's entertainment. And when my grandfather would take me to, and we would walk about an hour and then go. It's a Quonset building, or even just a tent that they have. And people, the tarp, those military tarps were there, and everybody just sat on the floor. And maybe stage was plywood just put together, and sometimes there's a hole all over the place, or, yeah, plywood probably from the ruin of homes or something like that, that was just put there. And you just sat there and just enjoyed, 'cause there's no, of course, no TV, no radio, and that was your whole entertainment. And like Obon season, each village would put their own show, where young people would do something special, they worked through whole year, and then they have like eisa, each village would have that. So there was, yeah, enough village entertainment to entertain people. And Okinawa especially, being in tropic island, it's hot, so evening was, yeah, cool, and that's when everybody would go and enjoy.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.