Kishihachi Ryutei Holds His Regular 'Kishi Rakugo Solo Night' at Fukagawa Suehirotei, Hints at Reworking 'Window Art'

Kishihachi Ryutei's, 68, regular solo show, "Kishi Rakugo Solo Night," was held on the night of the 27th at Fukagawa Suehirotei. A recurring engagement often mentioned in his column "Kishihachi's Opening," it's one of only a handful of solo stage appearances Kishihachi gives each year in his home neighborhood of Fukagawa. The small roughly 180-seat theater had a line forming before doors opened, and same-day tickets sold out quickly.

The evening's program featured two pieces from his longtime "Kishi Rakugo" repertoire. He did not perform the previously reported new piece "Window Art," but during his opening remarks he revealed, "The encore for Window Art was officially confirmed on the 26th. I'm still genuinely wrestling with how it'll play out indoors," drawing laughter and applause from the crowd. "I keep saying I won't let it settle on a single origin the second time around," he went on, "but every rehearsal is a fight against the temptation to just settle it right here." He recounted the struggle with his usual light touch.

A company employee in his 30s who attended said, "The main pieces were good, but honestly, the opening remarks about rehearsing Window Art stuck with me more. It's made me look forward to the next performance even more." A Fukagawa resident in her sixties said, "I've been listening to Kishihachi's shows for decades, and it's these little asides during the opening that feel most like him. Glad I came again today."

As previously reported, the November 14 encore performance of "Window Art" was only just confirmed on the 26th. Speaking to reporters after the show, Kishihachi said, "Sharing a little bit at a time, like I did tonight in the opening, feels about right. I'd rather not go too deep before the real thing." He otherwise had little to say about how rehearsals themselves were progressing.

Of the two pieces performed, one was a classical "Kishi Rakugo" piece inherited from his own teacher, a human-interest story set in the chaotic period right after the mass drift landing. The other was an original piece of Kishihachi's own, a light comic tale set in a Fukagawa shopping street. "The old one, I keep to my teacher's form. The new one, I let myself roll it however I like," Kishihachi said. "Putting the two side by side lets even me see what the core of my storytelling really is." The theater's proprietor explained, "It's become standard for Kishihachi's solo shows to pair one classical piece with one original each time. Tonight followed that same form, which I think gave the regulars a sense of reassurance."

Fukagawa Suehirotei is a small theater that hasn't previously been named in these pages, run with local performers holding their own regular stage slots. For Kishihachi it's a venue with ties going back to his own teacher's generation. "The distance to the audience is completely different from a big hall," he said. "At Fukagawa Suehirotei, I can watch their faces and change how I tell it." Advance tickets selling out within days, as they did this time, is unusual in recent years; the proprietor said, "The buzz around Window Art was undoubtedly part of the draw, but this isn't a place that fills up on buzz alone. It's built on what Kishihachi has put in locally, show after show."

It would be easy to let the buzz around the new piece "Window Art" overshadow everything else, but tonight's real business was the two pieces of "Kishi Rakugo Solo Night." And yet the loudest the room got wasn't during either main piece, but during a single aside in the opening — which says something about the range of this performer's craft. How the next stage turns out is, frankly, something I'm curious about myself.