first episode The rakugo world of the Corona disaster.
Hello. Hello everyone, I am Rakugo storyteller, Takigawa Koito.Previously on "Rise and Fall."If you have read my previous article, "The Way of Rakugo," I think you now know a little bit about me. In that article, I wrote a lot about my history, but I have decided to start over with a new title, "Takigawa Koito: The Way of Rakugo". Here, I hope to share with you how I am living my life as a rakugo performer, how I feel about what is happening in the world, and how I recall events from the past.
For those of you who have read "Rise and Fall", please continue to stay with us! If you want to watch from this "Takigawa Koito Rakugo Road", please read here! If you want to watch from this "Takigawa Koito Rakugo Road", please read here,If you are at all curious, please take a peek at my previous column, "Rise and Fall! If you are interested in even more, I would be happy to have you visit a Yose or Rakugo party! Thank you very much!
In this first installment, I hope to tell you how I felt during the state of emergency declared for the new coronavirus.
Around the beginning of March, exactly one month before the state of emergency was declared on April 7, my cell phone began to ring incessantly. All of the calls were for cancellations or postponements of local rakugo performances, and at the time, I was appearing at Yose (11 to 20) and Shimo-seki (21 to 30).
When I went to the dressing room of a Yose, the successful storytellers were all saying, "I've been a rakugo performer for 50 years, and I've never been so bored in my life. Originally, I was supposed to take a few days off from the Yose, but because of the postponement of the rakugo performance, I called the maeza in the dressing room and said, "I'll be able to appear after all! I called the maeza in his dressing room and went on to perform as if nothing had happened.
I joined the company in March 2004. This was before the TV dramas "Tiger & Dragon" and the anime "Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju," which sparked the recent rakugo boom, were broadcast, so the attendance at the theater was sparse. When the masters entered the dressing room, they would say, "Are there any guests today? (laugh). The turnout in March of this year was just like back then.
Looking at the sparse audience from the stage, I wondered what would happen to the world of rakugo in the future. But I still did my best to entertain the audience with my rakugo performance.
When a state of emergency was declared, the yose that had been running until the last minute was finally closed.
Shinjuku Suehiro-tei" is closed due to a declared state of emergency.
The program resumed on June 1.
I too stayed home except to buy food. It was natural to stay home, but I knew that I should not see my mentors or even my elderly mentors, because if I were infected I might be asymptomatic.
As I spend my days without a koza, I have been practicing my rakugo storytelling so that I don't forget it, but I also wanted to find a way to have fun with everyone who supports me, so I have been doing insta-live performances about two or three days a week. Although I can't make people enjoy it as much as in a koza space, I have found that I can connect with you all. When I receive comments and DMs, I really want to return to the stage as soon as possible.
Although it is difficult to communicate with you now only through social networking sites, I strongly hope to meet you all again by the beginning of fall.
The state of emergency declaration was finally lifted the other day. However, Yose and other Rakugo theaters may be subject to various restrictions for a while, but let's work together to get through it!
Scenes from an installation live with Master Yonesuke Katsura.
PROFILE
Born in 1984 in Nagoya, Japan, he is a member of the Rakugo Art Association. He became obsessed with motorcycles in high school and became the leader of a local motorcycle gang at the age of 17. He became an apprentice when he saw a solo performance by his master Takigawa Koisho while working part-time at a restaurant in Shinjuku, and was promoted to maeza in 2005, nitsume in 2009, and shinuchi in May 2019.
