Rakugo [Mizuya no Tomi]

Good evening.

Upon hearing the news of Jakujaku Katsura's passing, I felt moved to write on Note today.

Jakujaku-san was someone who captivated people with original Rakugo stories that added arrangements to his own real-life experiences. He was one of the leading Rakugo performers in the Kamigata Rakugo world, famous for his human-touch performances. He was only 64! Hearing the news of his death, which was far too young, made me feel like looking back on my Rakugo Research Society activities during my student days. Rakugo is fun, you know!

About 25 years ago, after the university entrance ceremony,
I was invited by two beautiful upperclassmen with silky black hair and blunt bobs, and the place my friend and I, two country bumpkins, followed them to was that Rakugo Research Society club room.
I had never heard of Rakugo and had no interest in it. Although I received a warm welcome when I entered the club room, I didn't decide immediately, and after agonizing over it with my friend for a night, I decided to join. When I knocked on the club room door the next day and entered timidly, the beautiful upperclassmen from the day before weren't there, and it was just unique guys. First, we had to decide on our stage names, and I was told to choose one I liked from many strange candidates, so I just picked one. My friend chose one too, and we immediately started being called by those stage names. My university life began with the Rakugo club. We had performances on campus 5 to 6 times a year, practiced, and went on stage; I think I learned and performed about 15 stories in four years.

I will introduce a story I particularly like.
It is a classic Rakugo story called [Mizuya no Tomi] (The Water Seller's Lottery).

[Synopsis]
The protagonist, Shinpachi, is a water seller who happens to win a lottery ticket he bought and comes into a large sum of money, eight hundred ryo.
Shinpachi returns home overjoyed, but struggles with where to hide the large sum. After thinking it over, he lifts the tatami mat, peels back the floorboards, drives in a five-inch nail, and hangs the money bag there to hide it.
However, even when he goes out to work, he can't stop worrying about the money, his work doesn't go well, and at night, he only has dreams of being attacked by robbers and having his money stolen. When he sees someone he doesn't recognize near the tenement, everyone looks suspicious. Even a passing dog looks suspicious. He can't rest at all.
At that time, a yakuza living next door, suspicious of the water seller poking a pole under the veranda every day to check on something, enters while he is away, peels back the boards, finds the large sum of money, steals it, and runs away.
When the water seller returns from work and probes under the veranda with his bamboo pole as usual, there is no resistance! Realizing the money has been stolen, he mutters this:

Ah, my money is gone...

Now my troubles are gone.

This is the punchline (sage).

It is a favorite story of mine that well expresses the emotions of a commoner who won the lottery.
The fact that he was supposed to be happy after getting a large sum of money, but was attacked by obsessive thoughts and became neurotic, and in the end, it was taken by a thief, and the punchline saying
Ah, now my troubles are gone!
is refreshing and feels good!
Thinking that I, too, am a commoner who can empathize, the part I practiced the most at the time was the action of Shinpachi the water seller returning from work and extending his pole under the veranda to check. I practiced this many times. The person who accompanied me in practice was
an upperclassman who became my classmate after repeating a year twice, and he was super strict about Rakugo. Can't you pour that passion into your studies? Even though he was a young man in his early 20s, he always had a little sweat on his forehead.FattyHis drink, with his chubby physique, was always [KIRIN Afternoon Tea Milk].
Everyone knew that if [Afternoon Tea Milk] was in the club room, it was his.

Why didn't he choose [Straight] or [Lemon]?

Milk is sweet. Full of sugar!

Since then, I don't recommend [Afternoon Tea Milk] to people who are conscious of their BMI, and I have come to look at [Afternoon Tea Milk] with caution myself.
#WhatIsThisStoryAbout

Please laugh at Kokontei Shincho's [Mizuya no Tomi].
I believe Shincho also passed away around the age of 63. It is too soon.

Rakugo is fun.
At that time, I couldn't memorize long human-interest stories, so I chose and performed shorter, cheerful stories about flatterers or lovable Yotaro stories.
Now, human-interest stories touch my heart. [Shibahama] is the best, isn't it? When I was young, even when I heard the punchline of Shibahama, I was like (*￣-￣) Hmm.
Performing in front of people is embarrassing at first. But when laughter occurs, it makes me happy too, and I think I gained a lot of courage through my four years of Rakugo club activities. By the way, the first story I performed was [Tsuru] (The Crane). The answer from the retired master to Hattsan who came to ask about the etymology of 'tsuru':

The male comes flying 'tsuuu---' and the female comes flying 'ru'.

[Postscript] I was impressed bythis articleby Kuromu-san from a long time ago.
I was moved by that passion.
I thought at that time that I should definitely write it with a hashtag, but I couldn't find the right timing... It became today.
I wonder if this is the right way to use it...

Thank you for reading until the end.