Nureki Chimuo Archive

To Nakahara Rutsu-san. My, what a careless thing I’ve done.

This is exactly what they mean by “I’m deeply ashamed.”

In last night’s “Nureki Newsletter,” I mistakenly referred to the current (fourth-generation) Sakata Tojuro as Nakamura Tojuro, and sent it off via fax without correcting it.

That was beyond careless. I couldn’t be more embarrassed. I’ll explain myself now.

I wrote that Tojuro has two sons. The eldest is Nakamura Kanzaku (whose stage name is, of course, Nakamuraya), and the second is Nakamura Sensaku (whose stage name is also, naturally, Nakamuraya). I also wrote that Nakamura Kazutaro, the son of Kanzaku, will be appearing in the role of a maidservant in “Migaeshi Zazen,” which we will be seeing next month at the National Theater.

Furthermore, getting carried away, I even went so far as to include a sort of family tree for this lineage, starting with the previous generation (the second) Nakamura Ganjiro.

I am of the same generation as the current Sakata Tojuro (we are only one year apart), and I have seen the Tojuro of the Nakamura Senshaku era more than anyone else (I’ve even watched movies starring Senshaku), so I inadvertently wrote Nakamura.

It’s truly embarrassing. So embarrassing it’s not even worth trying to explain.

There’s also Sawamura Tojuro from Kinokuniya, so it gets a bit confusing. This Kinokuniya Tojuro also appeared in Toei period films during his Seishiro era, and I’ve seen him a few times myself.

In short, the stage names of the current Sakata Tojuro’s sons and grandsons are all Narikoma-ya, while only the head of the family, Tojuro, goes by Yamishiro-ya.

I’ve been watching Sakata Tojuro since the days when he was known as Nakamura Senshaku, back when he trained under Bando Tsurunosuke (now Nakamura Tonjiro) and Takechi Tetsuji in what was known as “Takechi Kabuki,” and they were called the “Senkaku” duo. (I’m also just one generation apart from Tennojiya.)

I’ve seen countless performances, including “Sonezaki Shinju,” where his father, the second-generation Nakamura Ganjiro, played Tokubei and Sensaku gained fame as Ohatsu.

Back then, I preferred Ganjiro over Sensaku.

When I first saw the second-generation Ganjiro’s “Kamiji,” with his soft, supple movements, at the Kabukiza: “So this is the real deal when it comes to the Kamigata Kabuki’s leading men!”

I was so astonished I nearly fell off my seat. That was sixty years ago.

Until then, I had only seen Bando Takewaka’s Jihei and Ichikawa Fukunosuke’s Koharu (and Osan).

I still cannot forget the shock I felt when I first encountered the traditional wagoto11 style of Kamigata Kabuki.

And yet, oh, what an embarrassing mistake!

It was such a foolish error, writing Ichikawa Danjuro as Onoe Danjuro.

Last night, shortly after I faxed you that “Nureki Newsletter,” you called me and even though we talked for two whole hours, I still hadn’t noticed the mistake.

I’m ashamed and frustrated at how slow I am to catch on.

(Damn it! It was Sakata Tojuro, not Nakamura Tojura!)

It wasn’t until about fifteen minutes after I hung up the phone with you that I realized this.

(Something had been nagging at me all along.)

Although the “Nureki Newsletter” is just a personal letter, please do correct it.

You must remember that two or three years ago, when “Nureki Chimuo (濡木痴夢男)” was printed as “Nureki Chimuo (濡木痴夢夫)” on posters and flyers, I got so angry that I didn’t go to the venue where I had been invited. 11

Wagoto is a style of acting for love scenes

Yesterday, I sat at my desk writing a manuscript starting at four in the morning, so I was a little tired.

I finished writing the thirteenth installment of “Dear Sir, This is Nureki Chimuo, Bondage Specialist,” a serialized story in a magazine published by Sindy Publishing, titled “The Bondage Drama ‘Hostage’ is Complete,” all in one go, and I thought, “That’s right, before I send this manuscript to the publisher, I should have Fuyuki-san read it first.”

Then I called her.

“Do you want to read the manuscript I wrote about the shoot the other day?” I asked.

“Wow, I’d love to! Please send it to me!” She replied in a cheerful, lively voice.

It was such a lovely voice, full of vitality and warmth, that I felt somehow reassured and happy myself.

At the very end of that manuscript, I had written the following:

Fuyuki Sawato, Shion Kasumi. You both did an absolutely wonderful job. You showed us something beyond just acting. It was truly moving. As I write these words now, I am filled with a passion I’ve never felt before, and I want to express my deepest gratitude to you both. Once editing is finished, let’s hold a private screening of this film, just for us. And then, let’s discuss our next project.

It feels awkward to say something like this directly to you in person. It would seem too theatrical and lack sincerity, so I’m writing it here in an article for another magazine and sending it to you.

“I wrote a letter to you today, too. It should arrive tomorrow or the day after, so please read it!” Fuyuki-san said this in an even brighter, more cheerful voice.

I like people who speak clearly in a bright, energetic voice. I’m very sensitive to the quality of people’s voices.

I dislike people who speak in a dull voice, mumbling to themselves.

Avoiding people I dislike is my number one secret to staying healthy.

“Is that so? Thank you. I’ll be sure to read it.”

I feel like I’ll live a long life if I only associate with people I like. I am now eighty years and six months old.

Come to think of it, right after filming for Hostage wrapped up, Fuyuki-san presented me with a wonderfully appealing project.

After the test screening for Hostage, let’s all discuss Fuyuki-san’s idea, or rather, her wish.

After that, I wrote a manuscript for a place called Web Sniper.

As Nakahara Rutsu well knows, once I get going, I write manuscript after manuscript without stopping.

I get carried away with everything I do. If I don’t get carried away, I can’t do anything (well, I suppose that’s true for everyone).

This is the tenth installment of a serialized series with the shameless title “Nureki Chimuo’s Testament of Obscene Pleasure.” They actually pay me a proper fee for this series, too.

This time, the title is “While Watching the Stage.”

It’s a story about me enjoying myself by making various physical contact with the woman sitting next to me while watching a play.

It’s all true. Of course, I’m on good terms with the woman sitting next to me. If I did something like that to a stranger, it would obviously be sexual harassment and I’d instantly become a criminal.

I won’t even look at a woman unless we’re really close. Once we became close, I get clingy and persistent, pressing myself against her shamelessly like a baby. I’m relatively faithful to my own desires (I suppose everyone is like that. It’s only natural, isn’t it?).

But I seem to have particularly extreme likes and dislikes.

At a party, the moment a woman I disliked came up to me and grabbed my hand, I was so terrified I screamed.

“Stop it! My hand will rot!”

When I shook off her grip and ran away, Rutsu-san, you were right there watching and laughing your head off, weren’t you?

That merciless laugh of yours back then.

Anyway, any woman who reaches out to hold an 80 year old man’s hand is bound to be creepy.

After that, I wrote an article for a magazine related to the performing arts about my tachi-e performance.

I thought it was still a long way off, but lo and behold, this tachi-e performance was actually coming up next month.

Three performances a day, for a total of six performances over two days.

Each performance lasts about thirty minutes. It’s a performance where I shout at the top of my lungs, delivering the lines of ten different characters all by myself.

Through those storytelling connections, we had made plans to go to Yokohama together with Rutsu-san to see the assembly and mechanisms of the “Peep Show.”

It’s a rare chance to see the mechanisms and assembly of street performances from the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa periods, which are hard to come by these days, as well as a picture story titled “The Ghost’s Bullying of the Stepchild.” Since opportunities like this are so few and far between, I absolutely must go on, even if it takes the whole day.

Well, but more than anything else, I finally have to get started on the first volume of “The World of Minomura Ko” (working title), co-authored by Nureki Chimuo and Nakahara Rutsu, which has been commissioned by Kawade Shobo Shinsha.

I’ve already promised the publisher that I’ll write the manuscript as a series and publish a total of four volumes.

The traces of Minomura Ko, which Nakahara Rutsu, Director of the Sex Industry Museum, diligently selected from a vast collection of materials three months ago.

(I imagine this alone required a tremendous amount of effort and attention to detail. Thank you.)

I must engage with that collection of materials earnestly and meticulously, inviting Minomura Ko into my soul and bringing him back to life.

This is not a task I can undertake lightly. Writing about Minomura Ko will, naturally, mean writing about myself, and it will also mean writing about Nakahara Rutsu herself. I will be laying myself bare.

That was mainly what we talked about on the phone for two hours last night, wasn’t it?

Minomura Ko’s many artistic achievements, centered on his paintings, and your keen eye for observation and criticism regarding them.

And it would be interesting if my own observations and critiques of him were to become a sort of comparison, or even a confrontation, with yours.

At times, I feel it might turn into a heated exchange, but in any case, this is not a task I can undertake with a half-hearted attitude.

I don’t want to write the kind of sickeningly sweet, nothing-but-praise articles that appeared in a couple of magazines when he died.

There will likely be times when it feels like tearing my own flesh and spitting out blood.

Let’s encourage and support one another, and work together to see this collaboration, this task bestowed upon us by heaven, through to the end.

My prediction is that it will be an enjoyable project and that we’ll achieve good results.

Please correct “Sakata Tojuro” for me. Oh, I’m so embarrassed, I can’t even stand it.