Kishihachi's Opening: A Memorandum of an Opening
Column 'Kishihachi's Opening,' episode 6: reading the news of the Window Treaty's interim agreement and its 'memorandum,' rakugo performer Kishihachi Ryutei reflects on what his own opening banter has in common with things that can't be said in public.
This morning's paper had the word "memorandum" in it. Something that doesn't appear in the treaty itself, but exists all the same, apparently — only a summary shown, never the whole thing. I found myself nodding along: of course.
A rakugo opening works much the same way. It's idle chatter before the real story, and a performer reads the room before deciding whether today calls for this little aside or that bit of gossip. No performer lays everything bare in the opening. You put on the face of someone getting to the point, while really talking about half of something else entirely. And yet the audience still somehow knows — "I can lean into this one today" or "they're keeping their distance today." A summary alone carries the real tone.
I suspect the people at the Foreign Ministry feel something similar. Showing a summary of the memorandum and withholding the full text — I understand why that invites suspicion that something's being hidden, and, being in a trade of my own, I can also understand the worry that showing everything might only make the whole thing fall apart. A performer who told the whole truth in the opening would empty the house.
Tonight on stage, I think I'll use this "memorandum" business as my opening. Nothing to do with the main story, of course. I'll put on a face like it matters, talk about it just a little, and then get to the point. A memorandum, it turns out, might be closer to a performer's trade secret than anyone expects.
