（Jun Kawada and Toshiko Suzuka）
＜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
<Added on September 30, 2022> Rakugo performer Sanyutei Enraku VI has passed away due to lung cancer.
Sanyutei Enraku (real name Ai Yasumichi), a rakugo performer who was a regular on the entertainment program “Shoten,” passed away on the 30th from lung cancer. He was 72 years old, the same age as me, a member of the “baby boomer” generation. I pray for his soul to rest in peace.
He was born in Tokyo and became a disciple of Sanyutei Enraku V in 1970 while studying at Aoyama Gakuin University. In 1981, he became a shinuchi rakugo performer.
He became a regular on the TV show “Shoten” in 1977 when he was still a futatsume (second-class rakugo performer), and gained popularity with his intellectual, sharp-tongued exchanges with Katsura Utamaru in the Ogiri comedy contest. Since 2007, he has demonstrated his planning skills by producing the “Hakata Tenjin Rakugo Festival” held in the fall of Fukuoka City.
Taking advantage of his outstanding fame as a regular on the Ogiri segment of the “Shoten” show, he demonstrated his skills as a “diplomat” in the world of rakugo. He actively promoted exchanges across the boundaries of associations and schools to which he belonged, and at the same time, as the face of his school after the death of his master, Enraku V, he worked hard to raise the level of the rakugo world as a whole. He has made a great contribution to expanding the reach of rakugo to the provinces as well.
On the stage, in addition to silly humorous stories, he also narrated heart-warming stories such as “Hamano Noriyuki” in a catchy delivery.
He often said that “Rakugo is the best entertainment the Japanese have ever created.” He also said that Rakugo contains “things that the Japanese have forgotten,” such as kindness and compassion.
In 2010, he took on the stage name Sanyutei Enraku VI, and later showed enthusiasm for taking on his master’s stage name, Sanyutei Ensho.
In 2018, he announced that he had early-stage lung cancer. In January 2022, he was hospitalized due to a cerebral infarction. He returned to the stage in August, but was hospitalized again due to pneumonia.
Speaking of “love in old age,” the rakugo performer Sanyutei Enraku VI (1950-2022) was recently caught in a scoop by “FRIDAY” having a rendezvous with a woman in her 40s.
However, at the press conference to apologize and explain, he said, “It’s not ‘oiraku(old age)’, it’s ‘enraku’,” and gave a hilarious press conference like a comedy show, leaving everyone confused. This is typical of Enraku’s lovable personality.
In the Kamigata Rakugo world, it has come to light that the former president (6th generation) of the Kamigata Rakugo Association, Katsura Bunshichi VI (1943- ), had been in a close relationship with former enka singer Shien (1978-2019) for many years.
For some reason, it seems like “nothing good ever happens(「ろくなことがない」)” to the “Sixth Generation(「六代目」).”
Also, in the world of shogi, the 16th Meijin Nakahara Makoto (1947- ) was involved in a romantic scandal with former female shogi player Hayashiba Naoko (1968- ).
Leaving aside recent stories, looking back throughout history there are many Japanese and Western literary figures, writers, and artists who have left behind anecdotes about “love in old age.”
1. Love in old age among Japanese poets and writers
(1) Kawada Jun
Kawada Jun (1882-1966) was an executive who served as managing director of Sumitomo Headquarters, but he was also a poet.
He was initially enrolled in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo, where he was mentored by Lafcadio Hearn. However, when Lafcadio Hearn retired and was succeeded by Natsume Soseki, he moved to the Faculty of Law, saying, “There is nothing to learn in the Faculty of Letters without Professor Hern.” However, he described law as a dry and complicated “science as boring as a bird.” It seems he could not give up his admiration for literature.
After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1907, he joined Sumitomo headquarters and became an executive director in 1930. He was almost certain to become the new head of Sumitomo, succeeding Ogura Masatsune, but he resigned for personal reasons in 1936, saying that he was “not up to the task.”
During his time in office, Kawada was active as a poet under the tutelage of Sasaki Nobutsuna, and as a researcher of the Shin Kokinshu. In 1948, at the age of 66, he secretly married Suzuka Toshiko (1909-2008), a student of his who studied waka poetry. She was the wife of Nakagawa Yonosuke, a former professor at Kyoto University. The Nakagawas eventually divorced, but Kawada was tormented by remorse and attempted suicide at his wife’s grave, but survived.
The poem he wrote at that time was “Old love near the grave has nothing to fear.（「墓場に近き老いらくの恋は怖るる何ものもなし」）” The phrase “old love（「老いらくの恋」）” was born from this poem. It appears in the prologue of “The Burden of Love,” a love poem that Kawada sent to Toshiko. The first line begins, “Young love makes you blush with embarrassment, but at forty, when you are a man of your years, you worry about the world.（「若き日の恋は、はにかみておもてを赤らめ、壮士時の四十歳の恋は、世の中にかれこれ心配（こころくば）れども」）”
Toshiko responded to this song by saying, “I put my heart and soul into my songs, and my heart belongs to you.（「命こめて作らむものを歌に寄せし この吾心君によりゆく」）” In 1949, Kawada remarried with Toshiko.
By the way, in the case of “roiraku no koi” (love of an old man), “roiraku（「老いらく」）” means old age or an elderly person, but the original form of this word is “royuraku（「老ゆらく」）,” and it was already used in the Manyoshu from the Nara period as follows:
You seem to me to shine as brightly as the moon and the sun shining in the sky, and it is such a shame to see you growing older day by day.
「天(あめ)なるや月日のごとくわが思(も)へるきみが日にけに老ゆらく惜しも」
You are a jewel that sinks to the bottom of the Nuna River. A jewel that I have finally found after searching for it, a jewel that I picked up by chance. It is a pity to think that this precious new jewel will also age.
「沼名河の底なる玉求めて得し玉かも拾ひて得し玉かもあたらしき君が老ゆらく惜しも」
As an aside, after graduating from university in 1926, the haiku poet Yamaguchi Seishi joined Sumitomo headquarters. His boss was the poet Kawada Jun, and with his understanding he was able to devote himself to composing haiku.
(2) Watanabe Junichi
Watanabe Junichi (1933-2014) is an orthopedic surgeon (medical doctor) and author, famous for his romance novels that depict the pleasures and love of extramarital affairs, such as “Lost Paradise,” “Incarnation,” “A Flake of Snow,” and “Love’s Exile.”
He wrote quite boldly about his own romantic history in “Confessional Love Theory,” so he must have had plenty of experience with “love in old age.”
(3) Poets of the Manyoshu
① Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (c. 660-724)
I, old as the sacred old cedars of Isono, have fallen in love again.
石上（いそのかみ）布留（ふる）の神杉（かむすぎ）神さびて恋をも我（あ）れはさらにするかも
② Otomo no Sukune Momoyo (date of birth and death unknown)
I have lived a peaceful and safe life up until now, but I have found love like this in my old age.
事もなく生き来（こ）しものを老いなみにかかる恋にも我は逢へるかも
③ Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume (years of birth and death unknown)
I have never met such a passionate love until I grow old and my black hair is gray
黒髪に白髪（しろかみ）交り老ゆるまでかかる恋にはいまだ逢はなくに
You who were rumored to have a love with me that will not bear fruit like the mountain sedge, who are you sleeping with now?
山菅（やますげ）の実成らぬことを我に寄そり言はれし君は誰れとか寝（ぬ）らむ
④ Ishikawa no Iratsume (Year of birth and death unknown)
I thought I was a sensible old woman, but I am so lost in love, like a little girl.
古（ふ）りにし嫗（おみな）にしてやかくばかり恋に沈まむ手童（たわらは）のごと
2. Love in old age among the world’s writers and artists
(1) Goethe
Goethe (1749-1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, natural scientist, politician, and lawyer, and was a genius who displayed talent in many fields, but he was also a practitioner of “love in old age.”
At the age of 26, he met Madame Charlotte von Stein, seven years older than him, in Weimar, and continued his romantic relationship with her for 12 years, even though his relationship with her husband had cooled. It is said that countless poems were born from his love for her.
At the age of 39, he fell in love with a 23-year-old woman named Christiane Vulpius, and later made her his common-law wife. “Roman Elegies” was written based on his love for her.
Wilhelmine Herzlieb, whom he fell in love with at the age of 58, was 18 at the time. It is said that his secret love for her was the driving force behind writing “Les Affinities.”
At the age of 66, he fell in love with Marianne von Willemer, who was 16 years old at the time and the wife of a 31-year-old banker. She appears as Zuleika in the “Book of Zuleika” in the “West-Eastern Poems.”
The last person Goethe fell in love with at the age of 72 was Ulrike von Rewetzow, who was 17 years old at the time, and it was his unrequited love for her that gave birth to “Marienbad Elegie.”
We might say, “He is truly a great writer!” because he did not become madly in love in his old age and become a stalker or get into a violent fight, but instead sublimated his passion into excellent literary works.
(2) Picasso
Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish-born painter and sculptor who mainly worked in France. He is the founder of Cubism and is also known as the “greatest artist of the 20th century.”
In his private life, he was free-spirited with women, and after getting married, he would have affairs and have mistresses.
He was married to Olga Kollova, but when he saw Marie-Therese Walter in front of a department store, he fell in love at first sight, grabbed her arm and said, “I want to paint you. I’m Picasso.” He was 45 years old at the time, and she was 17 years old.
Marie-Thérèse had no interest in art and no desire for it, so they were able to have a relaxed relationship. However, as soon as she became pregnant and gave birth to a child, Picasso lost his desire to create.
Then, at the age of 55, he began a relationship with Dora Maar, a photographer and painter who was 29 years old at the time. However, he got into an argument with Marie-Thérèse, and the two women pressed him, asking “who will you choose?” He replied, “Let them fight and decide,” and let the two women fight, while he watched with a smile. This was his “four-person love relationship” with his wife, two mistresses, and Picasso.
Perhaps seeing the fight inspired him to create, as he painted “Guernica” around that time, a work that expresses the futility of conflict.
Regarding “Guernica,” art historian Miyashita Makoto has praised it in plausible yet difficult terms, saying, “Overall, it depicts the best possible outcome of a Christian vision of apocalypse, a suffocating drama of death and rebirth, a desire for humanistic salvation, the all-seeing gaze of God, the repeated absurd quarrels and death, human foolishness and wisdom, light and darkness beyond human understanding, and a symbolic expression of the conflict between good and evil.” However, I believe that Picasso, as an actual artist, did not express such lofty ideas, but was simply inspired by the quarrel between the two women and painted it as he pleased.
Furthermore, at the age of 62, Picasso began living with Françoise Giraud, a 21-year-old art student, and they had two children.
However, while Picasso was free-spirited, he had a selfish personality and wanted to control his partners, so Françoise Giraud grew tired of him, left him, took their child, and married another man.
When Françoise Giraud, who had dumped Picasso, asked him to acknowledge his child, he agreed on the condition that they “get back together.” However, by that time Picasso had already remarried another woman, Jacqueline Roque. Was this revenge for Françoise Giraud dumping Picasso?
Jacqueline Roque was Picasso’s last wife. Incidentally, Françoise Giraud later remarried a third time to an American scientist.
3. Love among the elderly
Recently, we have entered the “100-year life era,” and the number of healthy elderly people is increasing. As a result, I have heard stories of quarrels and disputes between men and women in nursing homes and other places due to “old people’s love.”
It is natural for a middle-aged man who has lost his wife to illness or divorced by mutual consent to seek “a woman who is always by his side and gives him peace of mind” or “a woman who makes his heart flutter and makes him feel young again.”
I think it’s possible to fall in love even when you’re older. Of course, unlike when you’re younger, “love in old age” often places emphasis on “spirituality.”
The following passage appears in Morimura Seiichi ‘s novel “Home Away.”
It is entirely conceivable that the two, who had been abandoned by their relatives on the mountain where they were abandoned, happened to come together, and as they were similar to each other, the love that blossomed in their old age.
However, when I hear stories like “disputes with children over inheritance,” “women who become wives in order to get the inheritance of elderly husbands after he die,” and “cases of murder by women who are engaged in second-wife business,” I feel very scared. I think that if they are just “tea-drinking buddies” without getting officially married, there is no crime and the risk of disputes is low…
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