Variety Act 'Zokkyoku' Performed by: Umekichi Hiyama.

It has been a month since my last visit, but this is the grand finale of my Asakusa Engei Hall vaudeville tour. It seems the person who performs the grand finale has a title called 'Shunin' (chief). I never knew that before. I wonder if they are like a general director who manages the vaudeville theater.

A variety act before the grand finale.

It is not just for the grand finale, but in vaudeville, you never know what the performance will be until it starts. Only the performer's name is written on the sign board.
To give away the punchline early, it was a story about the pleasure quarters, a night of entertainment fitting for the evening show.
Before the grand finale, there is a variety act. This refers to things other than rakugo, such as manzai or acrobatics. This time, the variety act before the grand finale was 'Zokkyoku'... songs sung to the accompaniment of a shamisen, often heard at banquets.
The performer was a woman named Umekichi Hiyama.

She is slender and petite, but her movements are already so graceful that I finally understood what a 'willow-like waist' meant. Her cherry-colored kimono fits her like a second skin, making her seem as fragrant as a flower.
Her voice is as cute and tinkling as a flute, and it rides lightly and coolly over the shamisen, which flows like rippling water.
That said, the lyrics of her songs are crisp and clear, and the resonance of the shamisen is firm; there is a beautiful, sharp core of strength hidden behind her delicate appearance.

Various Zokkyoku songs.

'Mizu no Fukaki' (Deep Waters)

Yoshiwara... I want to read that as 'Naka'... It is a song that expresses the journey to go out for fun (I want to use the Edo-style pronunciation 'asubi' here) from around Yanagibashi, swaying in a chokibune (a slender, small boat shaped like a boar's tusk), by listing the place names. So, you shouldn't be able to understand it unless you know the place names... but the way the shamisen bounces as if echoing off the stern, the singing voice that seems to glide over the river surface, and the way she calls out to people on the shore. It builds up the mood of, 'Shall we go spend a stylish moment?'
The closing line, 'It's a customer!', was truly thrilling.

'Shinagawa Jinta'

With an atmosphere like swaying in a chokibune, I felt as if I had slipped back in time to the Edo period. But just as I started to feel a bit sad, thinking that such things were a distant past with no connection to me, this 'Shinagawa Jinta' was sung.

We have approached the era of steamships. Even if Yoshiwara is gone, the stylish 'asubi' has not perished... Indeed, even this Asakusa Engei Hall today is stylish enough.

'Hakoiri Danna' (The Sheltered Husband)

Now then, what are the 'three conditions for an ideal man' sung by such a stylish lady?

An original song by Umekichi-san. Style is still alive today. A setlist that includes such a message... wait? Is it okay to call it a setlist in this genre?

'Okiyo Shamoji wa Doko ni Aru' (Where is Okiyo's Rice Paddle?)

Now, to be too serious about it would be boorish in its own way. It is cool how she casually tosses in a nonsense song, acknowledging that 'style' is difficult. The content of this song is literally just 'I can't find the rice paddle.' Seriously. And it's short.
However, as the lady casually explains it like it's a bit of shamisen trivia, she modulates the key twice in a song that isn't even two minutes long.

The part of the shamisen that corresponds to a guitar's tuning pegs is called the 'itomaki'. You twist them to tune it. There are no frets. There are only three strings. When you modulate, you have to retune.
Now that I think about it, she had been twisting the itomaki while playing quite often...

In other words, in this song 'Where is Okiyo's Rice Paddle?', the content is just that Okiyo lost her rice paddle. But in less than two minutes, while singing and playing, she retunes twice. And to different scales, too. What is that, it's scary.

Canceling out virtuoso technique with silly lyrics. The sheer gap makes me dizzy. Of course, for Umekichi-san, it's as easy as pie. It was met with thunderous applause.

"Shobu no Odori" (Iris Dance)

The finale is a dance.
In keeping with the season, she performed the "Shobu no Odori" (Iris Dance).
This was my first time properly watching Japanese dance live. I've seen New Year's kagura a few times, but that's about it.
My heart was racing. I had this preconceived notion that kimonos were modest and lacked sex appeal, but oh, how wrong I was.
Her relaxed standing posture was soft, and every time she quietly swayed her hips, the kimono would pull taut, highlighting the lines of her body. Even with small movements of her limbs, the hem and sleeves would suddenly flash as if floating, and her wrists and ankles would gleam white.

The grand finale is performed by Yunosuke Sanyutei.

At this point, I still don't know what the grand finale performance will be.
However, the atmosphere created by Umekichi Hiyama was completely that of the old Yoshiwara district.
With a pleasure quarter story in this kind of atmosphere, there's no way it wouldn't be interesting.
My expectations were rising whether I liked it or not.

I wrote an article about the grand finale on July 8th.
With this, the report on the Asakusa Engei Hall April late-month evening session comes to an end. I hope all my readers will enjoy it at their leisure until the very end.