Natalie report ‘Rakugo’

Whoa! Hey! Ooga breaks out in Ooga fashion in the Sakura Gakuin ‘Lesson on Rakugo’.

Natalie report

2016 January 22

Ooga Saki breaks up the crowd with her unique ‘Ariyo! Ariyo!’

Sakura Gakuin put on a ‘Lesson on Rakugo’ open class event at the Hamagin hall Bimare on January 17th.

The ‘Lesson on Rakugo’ began with the entrance of the Rakugo artist Tatekawa Shirano who is a Rakugo performer who was awarded with the National performers outstanding performance award for 2015 and who is a 2nd removed student of the renowned Rakugo master, Tatekawa Danshi. After watching the performance by Tatekawa Shirano the students were asked to perform a short version of ancient Rakugo that had been prepared by him.

In the first hour the Sakura Gakuin students of Ooga Saki, Yamaide Aiko, Hidaka Marin and Yoshida Soyoka were featured. As soon as Tatekawa Shirano made his way on to the stage he said to the homeroom teacher Mori Hayashi who had appeared in the previous day’s open class event, ‘Rhythmic gymnastics lesson’ and who had spoken only about women university students, ‘I am so sorry that I am not a woman university student’! Mori answered, ‘OK, so I will go and change into leotards!’ which caused the audience to erupt into laughter. Following this little episode, Tatekawa Shirano performed an ancient Rakugo story known as ‘Tsuru’ to serve as a sample representative of what Rakugo is. Yamaide was amazed saying, ‘even though there are no visual props it was like the scenery of the story appeared in front of my eyes’. Replying to this Shirano said, ‘That is not the work of the Rakugo storyteller but rather the result of the imaginations of those listening’. The fact that you responded like this to the story shows that all of you have rich imaginative powers.

After this the 4 girls put on pink or red Haori jackets and tried their hand at performing Rakugo. The 2 elementary school girls, Hidaka and Yoshida performed ‘Tsuru’ which was met with a warm round of applause from the Fukei who were impressed with their earnest attempts. The Jr. High members, Ooga and Yamaide performed the story, ‘Hantaiguruma’ <The Rickshaw>. Ooga put on a performance filled with originality including her unique and original call back verse of ‘Ariyo’, ‘Ariyo!’ to which Shirano proclaimed, ‘That was outstandingly interesting. It is very rare to get so much laughter out of this story! From here on out this story is all yours!’.

In the second hour which was attended by Isono Rinon, Okada Megumi, Kurosawa Mirena and Aso Maaya the two stories of ‘Tsuru’ and ‘Oyako Zake’ <Parent/child sake> were used. In her performance of ‘Tsuru’ Okada counted the cranes <Tsuru> as ‘1, 2, …’ using the counting words usually used only for people and interjected her own comic phrase of ‘Megu knows, Megu knows’ that is so familiar to the Fukei causing them to laugh in a soft and knowing manner. Aso who also performed ‘Tsuru’ replaced the main character with herself and did her story with a cute smile on her face. It was assumed that the story ‘Oyako Zake’ <Parent/child sake> would be a very difficult topic for Isono and Kurosawa since they obviously have never experienced being drunk. However, they both skillfully acted as if they were actually drunk astounding both the Fukei and Shirano. Apparently Shirano researched about Sakura Gakuin and he said that he particularly liked the graduate student Horiuchi and even used her name in ”Oyako Zake’ <Parent/child sake> when he performed it as a sample. Picking up on this, Isono included a imitation of Horiuchi in her storytelling performance much to the delight of the Fukei.

The third hour was attended by the 3 members of Kurashima Sara, Okazaki Momoko and Fujihira Kano. First the 3 girls watched a performance of ‘Tsubozan’ by Shirano. Following this they each did performance of the same story, ‘Tsuru’. Finishing her performance, Kurashima said with a smiling face, ‘It was surprisingly enjoyable. The Zabuton <cushion> is God, isn’t it? That feeling of sinking into it gives on a feeling of security and relief’. Okazaki agreed saying, ‘It is God. The words just kind of descend into one’. As with the first hour, the third hour members also performed the story ‘Hantaiguruma’. With a look of absolute confidence on her face Fujihira proceeded with her performance while spreading an air of confusion throughout the hall with her addition of a mysterious ‘Zaaaa’ vocalization. When she was asked what the strange that she was making was all about after she finished, Fujihira gave an totally out of the ballpark answer of ‘I was moving over the ocean!’ sending the Fukei into laughter. In conclusion Kurashima skillfully gave a performance of ‘Hantaiguruma’ that faithfully reproduced the sample performance of Shirano. The Fukei awarded Kurashima with a hearty round of applause for her performance that was so fitting for the girl who will be in her final year at Sakura Gakuin from this April. This however turned out not to be the final act as on the urging of Shirano it was decided that Mori-sensei would also perform ‘Hantaiguruma’. He brought the show to a conclusion borrowing heavily from Ooga’s performance and sweating a bit under the pressure as he did. Following the conclusion of the third hour Mori and Shirano held a after show talk which kept the Fukei laughing right up until the final curtain came down on the day’s open lesson.