Yoko Kanno, “Wo Qui Non Coin”

The esteemed Japanese composer Yoko Kanno wrote and sang this song for the Cowboy Bebop television series. She has such a stereotypical Japanese female voice, soft and yielding. Japanese women are taught to speak this way, because it’s certainly not genetic. In fact, when I learned Japanese, my instructors (some of whom were male, some of whom were female) taught our class to speak this way. I knew it was their private little joke, their way of ensuring the Japanese racial superiority over the ugly gaijin, by teaching us to speak in a submissive way to our Japanese betters. Whatever. That was a long time ago. Perhaps they do not teach it that way anymore. But you have only to listen to how a Japanese male speaks to hear the difference.

That said, this song is not strictly Japanese, but a mishmash of Japanese and French, a made-up language that Kanno uses  in some of her songs. It’s interesting. I like the nylon guitar.