Mayunkiki created this work in her hometown of Asahikawa, Hokkaido and in Tenryukyo (Tenryu Gorge) and other parts of the Tenryu River basin (between Okumikawa in eastern Aichi and the Ina Valley in southern Nagano), traveling between the two locations. Both areas have rivers, bridges, and railway lines in dramatic natural environments. Mayunkiki’s personal links with the geography—the Ishikari River and Tenryu River, Kamui Ohashi Bridge and Tenryu River Railway Bridge, and the JR Soya line (formerly the Hokkaido Government Railway) and JR Iida line (formerly the Sanshin Railway)—provided the inspiration. As part of research tracing back the memories and history inscribed in the land, Mayunkiki’s team collected sounds of the current railways in operation and of the natural environment, overlapping these sounds with recordings of traditional Ainu song to create the audio.

The work’s theme owes a great deal to Kawamura Kaneto (1893–1977), Mayunkiki’s grandfather. The leader of the Ainu community in Asahikawa, Kawamura was a surveying engineer, remembered particularly for taking on the challenge of supervising the construction of the railway between Tenryukyo and Mikawa-Kawai despite the precipitous cliffs in the gorges. Mayunkiki’s pride at the role played by her grandfather in the modernization of Japan is tempered by the fact that modernization resulted in seizure of lands where the Ainu had lived, and pressure on them to align their language, livelihoods, and lifestyles with those of others. Research for this work provided an opportunity for her to explore this history in greater depth. Describing it as “Bridging across what often feels unbridgeable and irreversible: upstream and downstream, and ancestors and descendants,” she presents the outcome of her research in conjunction with the performance work kuste. The presentation gives viewers a taste of the variety of expression used by Mayunkiki, including song, video, and performance in addition to installation.