I’m letting you know that my rakugo performance at Te Pou Theatre is happening this weekend!
Some people have asked me what time my slot is, so here you go!
PLACE: Tāhū Studio at Te Pou (Corban Estate Arts Centre, 2 Mt Lebanon Lane, Henderson, Waitakere)
TIME (for my performance): 2:15PM-2:45PM
As I mentioned before, it’s a part of Whānau Day, and you can check out heaps of other amazing artists, too, FOR FREE!
Hope to see you there, and make sure to say hi to me!
Kia ora!
It’s been a while to update my website, but hope everything is well with you all 😊
I have been performing mainly for educational institutions for the last few months, but 2 public performances are coming up very soon!
One will be at UPSTAIRS of my favourite bookstore, Time Out (432 Mt Eden Road), and the other will be on Whānau Day 2024 at the prestigious Māori theatre, Te Pou (2 Mt Lebanon lane, Henderson)!
* To clarify the notice on Whānau Day 2024, ‘Rakugo’ is the right spelling of my art, and my real name ‘Hiroshi’, instead of my stage name Kanariya Eishi, is shown (which is actually seen as a no-no in the rakugo world), but I’m still super grateful!
Please do RSVP via contact page or one of my SNS if you are coming to the Time Out performance. RSVP not required for Whānau Day.
I normally pick which stories to perform while I’m on stage, but I have realised it’d be more audience friendly if I let them know before the performance, so here’s my plan:
Time Out (Sat 24 August)
Story 1: The Zoo (動物園) Story 2: Licking a Kettle (やかんなめ)
Te Pou (Sat 7 September)
Story 1: Jugemu (寿限無) Story 2: The Zoo (動物園)
Hope to see you there! Don’t forget to RSVP if you are coming to Time Out!
It’s been 8 months since I closed my Twitter/ X account.
The platform was getting filled up with hate speech, misinformation, and trolls, and I no longer wanted to be a cog for the billionaire’s virtual playground where I was one of his products.
But… I have to admit that I later regretted my decision when my account was completely swiped off the system. I really felt, then, that regardless of all the cons, what mattered the most was the real people on the other side of the digital sinkhole.
I almost felt guilty that I chose my dislike of the platform over the real people who I knew in real life and those who I’d possibly meet in the unforeseen future.
Having said that, it’s time to move on.
The problem with X was that a single powerful person (or an egomaniac?) dominated the entire platform. Unfortunately, this could potentially happen to all other centralised platforms including Meta-owned sites like Facebook, Instagram, Threads, or even WhatsApp, which means pretty much all the major platforms in the world.
However, as a true “indie of indies”, I cannot do without SNS to share my work as a rakugo performer, and this has been a huge dilemma to me.
In an ideal world, I’d rather meet and chat with people face-to-face rather than only connecting with them virtually. But I’ve been told by my producer and actor friends that I must keep at least one major platform, which according to them is Instagram, Facebook, or X. In fact, one of the recent contracts that I signed said, I have an obligation to share the event that I’m involved in at least 3 times via my SNS, so I literally can’t get rid of them 😁
Then, enters the Fediverse concept.
I don’t fully understand it, but it’s basically a collection of social networking sites that can communicate with each other, therefore not bound by one single individual or company unlike other platforms.
In Fediverse, you can move around between platforms. So even if you close down your current account, you can take it with you to another platform.
WordPress, Mastodon, and Bluesky probably are the most famous ones, but recently Threads (half-) entered the Fediverse.
It seems like some instances (or servers) have rejected to connect with Meta-owned Threads as it might interfere with their internet freedom. I don’t really know enough about the consequences of their participation, but we’ll see.
But for now, to look ahead for the future, it’d make sense for me to stick with platforms in the Fediverse.
You are most likely to find my latest news and thoughts on Mastodon and Threads… for the time being.
I have just learned about the passing of another great rakugo master, Katsura Zakoba II.
According to JiJi Press, he passed away due to his asthma yesterday (Wednesday 12 June 2024).
He was one of my favourite performers of all time, and I loved his warm-hearted AND hilarious rakugo so much.
As some of you may know, he has his relatives in New Zealand, and his entire rakugo family once visited here to entertain the Japanese community in Auckland. It seems like the Japanese Kiwi singer, JAY’ED, is his nephew, so perhaps through this connection he decided to produce the show.
This performance was broadcast in Japan. I was laughing so uncontrollably that the TV cameraman caught me, and some of my relatives saw me on TV and contacted me, saying, “I saw you laughing hard out!”.
It was how good he was and how happy he could make people around him.
I was your huge fan, Shisho!
Hope you are having fun catching up with other masters who have already passed on!
I have to say that Japanese are superstitious.
I have a large stack of the lucky charms that my dear mother in Japan have sent me over the last 20 plus years.
We avoid numbers like 4 and 9 because 4 (四 shi) rhymes with death (死 shi) while 9 (九 ku) rhymes with suffering (苦 ku).
When I turned 44, my mum sent me heaps of lucky charms to ward off bad luck. I can predict that I’ll be bombarded with some more lucky charms when I turn 49 next year.
Having said that, I grew up more of a cynical sceptic, taking after my dad.
So I thought, but I recently realised that I am actually both sceptic and superstitious- just like the rest of Japan.
Most of us say that we are non-religious, but we love visiting shrines, temples, and even churches and vaguely believe in the unseen world. We are not atheists as some westerners say.
Since I started learning about the traditional Māori calendar called maramataka, I’ve got really curious about our own traditional calendar, and I’ve been learning about it for the last few months.
First, look at the Japanese calendar of this month (June 2024) below. Most of our calendars tell us the luck of each day.
For example, 24th June 2024 is a Taian (大安), one of the luckiest days, and many Japanese weddings are held on a Taian.
On the other hand, 17th June 2024 is a Butsumetsu (仏滅), and it’s the unluckiest day in Japanese calendar. Most couples avoid this day to get married.
As I grew up, I’d always thought Taian was the luckiest day, but I have recently learned that there are luckier days in the year.
It is called Tenshanichi (天赦日 てんしゃにち), which only happens 5-6 times a year. It is believed that all the gods rise up to the heavens and forgive all the sins of people on this day.
When Taian and Tenshanichi overlap, it is even more auspicious.
There is another lucky day called Ichiryumanbaibi (一粒万倍日 いちりゅうまんばいび), which literally means “the day one seed turns into 10,000 seeds”.
It is a good day to start a new project.
Kristine Ohkubo’s ‘Nickname: Flower of Evil (呼び名は悪の花)’ is a compelling exploration of Japan’s dark past, spotlighting its neglect of women’s rights that still continues even today. Recently honoured as an American Legacy Book Awards Finalist for 2024, this work delves deeply into the controversial life of Abe Sada, whose story epitomised the struggles of women in early 20th-century Japan.
Ohkubo’s masterful narrative reveals the harsh realities faced by women during a time of intense modernisation that began after the Meiji Restoration. Through the lens of Abe Sada’s infamous crime, the book examines gender inequality and societal pressures that led to her desperate actions. She was, indeed, a victim of our dark history.
This work is a reminder of the ongoing issues of gender inequality in one of the most “developed” countries in the world. As always, Ohkubo uncovered the truths hidden in the shadows of the past to give a voice to those who had no voice.
English Rakugo NZ 