 Japanese researchers get look at Ehime Maru
Hear Jake Shimabukuro's 'Ehime Maru'
A Tribute to the Missing
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By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor
Jake Shimabukuro, Hawai‘i’s award-winning ‘ukulele soloist, has written an instrumental piece honoring the memory of those lost in the Ehime Maru tragedy and plans to donate proceeds from the song to a fund to help their families.
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| Jake Shimabukuro said he wrote 'Ehime Maru' as an outlet for his personal grief and did not plan to play it publicly until the Japanese media asked him about it.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Shimabukuro was in Hawai‘i when the Japanese fishing vessel collided with the USS Greeneville submarine Feb. 9.
Two days later, he left for Japan and started following the story.
"That’s when the families of the survivors were starting to arrive" in the Islands, he said. "And when they identified the four students and the five others lost at sea, it affected me a lot, since I have a lot of friends in Japan."
When he wrote the song, Shimabukuro — a member of Colon, formerly the Hoku Award-winning Pure Heart — said he had no intention of playing it for anyone, much less recording it.
It was meant to be an outlet for his personal grief.
But the Japanese media found out about it and wanted to hear the song.
Entitled "Ehime Maru," the instrumental is based on what musicians know as "‘minor add nine’ chord," a reference to the nine who were lost in the accident, said Shimabukuro.
"The minor add nine is when you take a minor triad, or chord, and add the ninth note in an active two-octave scale. It’s a very beautiful sound, with a lot of tension," he said.
Tracey Terada of Four Strings Ukulele Studio, who is producing the CD single, hopes to have it out within a week.
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