Comedy Duo 'Shiomibashi' Marks Five Years — First Solo Show with Robot Partner
'Shiomibashi,' an unusual comedy duo pairing a human performer with a non-humanoid cleaning robot, marks its fifth anniversary on the 15th and will hold its first solo show next month. Daisuke Namekawa, 31, who plays the straight man, said, "I think ours is the longest-running robot-and-human pair out there."
Comedy duo "Shiomibashi" has performed at a street theater in the Shiomibashi shopping district since 2021 — though only one half of the pair is human. The other is Harisen, a boxy, non-humanoid cleaning robot once used around the shopping district, whose movements and operating sounds straight man Daisuke Namekawa treats as "lines" to build their routines around. "I know it looks like an odd pairing from the outside, but after five years I know every one of Harisen's quirks," Namekawa laughed. "I'd say we're more in sync than most human-and-human pairs."
The duo got its start when Harisen, long used for cleaning duties around the shopping district, began moving unpredictably as its parts went out of production. "I figured I'd give it one last job before it got scrapped, so I tried a simple bit out on the street," Namekawa recalled. "It went over better than I expected, and five years later, here we are." Under the previously reported "anti-humanlike" regulation, non-humanoid symbiotic robots are permitted to appear in entertainment, and Shiomibashi has become one of the few standing comedy acts built around that framework, appearing in these pages more than once.
Asked about the previously reported Robot Legal Status Council hearing, where committee members clashed over whether to treat Tokiwado's robot "Unit Four" operating sound as a "statement" (reported on the 12th), Namekawa said, "We've been treating Harisen's operating sounds as lines in our act for five years now. Whatever the council decides to call it is the council's business, but on stage, the act doesn't work unless we treat it as Harisen's 'voice.'" He added, "I understand the worry about mixing up a legal question with a stage convention, though. I think where to draw that line is genuinely hard."
Marking its fifth anniversary, Shiomibashi announced it will hold its first solo show next month at the shopping district's street theater. Past appearances centered on the "Kishibe no Uta" music festival and district events; this will be the first time performing alone. "A lot of Harisen's parts just aren't made anymore, so there's also a feeling of wanting to do what we can while we still can," Namekawa said. Ticket details will be announced soon.
Asked about a successor unit for Harisen, Namekawa answered immediately: "Honestly, I don't want to think yet about what happens when Harisen stops moving. Switching to some other robot and calling it 'Shiomibashi Mark Two' isn't something I'm considering at all right now." Of the shopping district's planned new cleaning robot, he drew a clear line: "That one has its own job to do. My only partner is Harisen." A contact at Potto Records has suggested recording the solo show for posterity; Namekawa laughed, "Whether we keep a record of it is something I'll have to discuss with Harisen."
A steward of the shopping district's Tosatsu association said, "Our district isn't just lively because of Sawatari and Okonogi at tosatsu — Shiomibashi's two performers add to it too. Being able to mark five years at a small street theater feels exactly right for this neighborhood." Asked why the solo show would stay at the street theater rather than move to a larger venue, Namekawa explained, "I have no interest in doing this somewhere big. This street is simply where Harisen works best."
