＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
1. Kenji Sawada’s last-minute cancellation
This time, I would like to consider the issue of Julie, also known as Kenji Sawada, suddenly canceling his performance that was scheduled to take place at Saitama Super Arena on October 17th 2018, just a few hours before the start of the show.
The truth of the matter is that Kenji Sawada’s agency had heard in advance from the “event promoter” (the company that sells tickets and produces the live performance) that the audience number would be 9,000, but the actual number was 7,000, which was far from the full house that Julie himself wanted, so he left the venue before the show started because his pride would not allow it.
2. Mie Nakao’s frank criticism
Some of Julie’s fans defended him, but it seems that the majority of comments were critical. Mie Nakao, a former senior at his former office, criticized, “Don’t be extravagant; you have to be grateful that 7,000 people came to hear a 70-year-old man sing.
And as for Julie’s comment about his own pride as a singer, “I have my own pride,” Mie Nakao said, “If Julie has his own pride, he should lose more weight. He would still be a good-looking guy if he lost weight”.
Being a senior, she didn’t forget to follow up, but it seemed like she spoke directly on behalf of what we were thinking.
Certainly, given his “past glory” and “pride,” he may have been dissatisfied with the turnout, but it seems to me to be an extremely disrespectful “arrogance” towards the 7,000 people who came to Saitama Super Arena. I believe that the “contractual issue” is something that should have been resolved later between his agency and the event planners, and that he should not have caused any trouble to the audience on the day.
At the beginning of his performance at Sayama Hall in Osaka on October 21, he apologized for the recent incident, saying, “I am a flawed person. It’s all my fault,” but it’s too late now. As the saying goes, “a short temper is a loss,” so “say what you want to say tomorrow.”
As he is 70 years old and part of the “baby boomer” generation like me, I hope that he will live up to what Confucius said in the Analects: “At seventy he follows his heart’s desire without overstepping the bounds of propriety.”
3. Arrogance of other entertainers
(1) Shigeru Yazaki
Speaking of “arrogance,” I once heard a story about Shigeru Yazaki, who was once asked to give a lecture, but got angry when “no one came to pick him up at the station, and there was no car to pick him up,” and canceled the lecture at the last minute and went home. I remember feeling disillusioned because my impression of him on TV was that he was a “humble, good-natured person.”
(2) Miyako Chocho
In her later years, Miyako Chocho would complain to those around her about the poor turnout to her plays. Was it difficult for even a veteran comedian like Miyako Chocho to reach the state of enlightenment to objectively and calmly look at her current popularity?
(3) Kokontei Shinsho V
There is a legend that the famous Rakugo master Kokontei Shinsho V (father of Kokontei Shincho III) “really fell asleep during a performance.” One of his apprentices tried to wake up his master. At that moment, someone in the audience said, “Let him sleep.”
In reality, he was a big drinker, and it may have been because he was drunk before going on stage. In modern times, this would be criticized as “last-minute cancellation” or “abandoning one’s job,” but it seems to have been elevated to the status of “legend” as a relationship between a “master storyteller” and a “chic audience.”