The other day, I went to a Hisashi Inoue’s play at Komatsu-za, Shinjuku for the first time in years. Alhough I didn’t expect too much, I was caught up into the story, because of its extreme precision and especially the marvelous acting of Takuzou Kakuno and Kazunaga Tsuji. “Ensho and Shinsho” is a story about two rakugo (Japanese comedic storytelling) performers who are opposite in both personality and rakugo style, locked in a hell in Manchuria.
In the summer of 1945, Ensho and Shinsho go to China to perform rakugo to entertain the Kwantung army there. The two performers enjoyed the first two months, but Japan loses the war in August. When Japan makes the unconditional surrender on August 15th, the Kwantung army that was once called elite force has been sent to the South, and all men from the reclamation parties have been called out. The only people left there are women, the old and children. The two performers straggle in Dailian under such condition, helping people and being helped by people.
Then, there appear 5 different groups of women. These 5 groups of women are played by only 4 actresses, who play each of their part so differently. Tender, tough, spiritually rich women. The two performers are facing death so closely, that I wouldn’t be courageous enough to sit the play out if this was a serious drama. But, this play is in fact very enjoyable as it is partly musical, speedy and the pianist plays very good tunes like retro jazz.
What is great about Hisashi Inoue is that he makes chronological tables of the two rakugo performers from their birth to death very precisely. I bet there are no playwrights who create a story after making chronological tables of the characters as precisely as he does. He also made a Dailian City’s chronological table for 600 days from the summer of 1945 to the spring of 1947.
The way the two both live freely as a rakugo performer and survive tough unlike a rakugo performer who should live only for performance on the basis of this precise, cruel history was so interesting and touching. Moreover, the five groups of women includes the 4 women from a brothel or 4 ghosts of slaughtered mothers from the reclamation party, which are both being eliminated from history. I was again impressed by Hinashi Inoue, who has affection and severity to write this kind of story.
