[Report] Kagotsurube - ACT 1 (part 3) -
Continued from Act 1 (part 2)
(Outside Hyogo-ya; Zenji brings in a customer)
Otatsu: Oh, Shinpachi-san! We have been waiting for you!
Shinpachi: Hello. Is Yuuzuru here?
Otatsu: Oh, yes, yes.
Yuuzuru (oiran): (Comes running out) Shinpachi-san!
Shinpachi: Yuuzuru! I missed you.
Yuuzuru: You haven’t come in a long time… I thought you had forgotten about me!
Shinpachi: Sorry, work has been very busy. Yuuzuru, I have something important to tell you today. (Goes inside the store.)
Yuuzuru: Something important?? Hmm??
Otatsu: Yuuzuru! Oh my god! Go!
Yuuzuru: …! Can it be!? Oh my!
Kujuu: Go!
Otatsu: Hey, Suama! (Looks at Suama, who’s munching on a snack) Whatever happened to your customers!?
Suama: Oh, the guy I was with fell asleep in the middle of it!
Otatsu: I’m talking about the waka-danna!
Suama: Oh, he ran away!
Otatsu: Ran away!?
Suama: Oh but don’t worry. Yatsuhashi dayuu chased him!
Otatsu: I’m sure it’ll be fine, then…
Kujuu: Don’t you think that giving Yatsuhashi to that man is too much? I mean, he’s a rich waka-danna and all, but…
Otatsu: You will see; I have a feeling that he’s going to be a regular who’d spend a loooot of money on her. My instincts are usually right!
(Einojyo walks by)
Einojyo: Are you two up to something again?
Kujuu: Oh, it’s you.
Einojyo: What do you mean ‘you’? I have a nice name. Einojyo.
Kujuu: Ha, shut up you former-artist.
Einojyo: Ha, whatever. I’m going to go in.
Kujuu: Stop. Yatsuhashi dayuu is servicing someone else right now.
Einojyo: Oh really. Then I’ll just wait inside.
Kujuu: I said stop! (Goes up to him and comes face-to-face)
Einojyo: What!!
Kujuu: Naaaaaaaninunenoooooo (*He usually fools around here, putting a lot of adlibs, haha. He has said random things like “I heard you don’t like tomatoes!” or “I heard that you only eat the fatty flesh of tuna fish when you go to sushi places!”)
Einojyo: Oh, shut up! (*In the last show I went to, he said “Can’t you say something funnier!? Like this, ‘boon! boon!’ doing the Zukkoke Otokomichi dance, lol.)
Otatsu: (*Sometimes laughing at the exchanges between the two guys) Oh shut up you two! Just give him someone else in the meantime.
Zenji: (*He’s a guy) Okay, then I’ll go!
Einojyo: Ew! No thanks!
Zenji: Oh, come on, danna-san! How about me for a change!
Einojyo: I said no thanks!!! (The two leave and Suama comes out to join Kujuu and Otatsu)
Kujuu: Such an annoying guy… I can’t believe he is Yatsuhashi’s “mabu”…
Suama: What’s a “mabu”?
Kujuu: A “mabu” is this (points his thumb up); an oiran’s “ii hito” (= secret lover).
Suama: Oohhh! I want to find one soon, too!
Otatsu: You can say that after you become a full-fledged oiran! You have to buy your time to spend with your “mabu.” You have to put money into the store.
Suama: What!? That doesn’t sound right at all!
Otatsu: It doesn’t matter if it sounds right or not! That’s the rule in Yoshiwara! Oh, Suama-chan. Why don’t you go over to Einojyo’s room and be his talk buddy?
Suama: Can I!? Yay, that sounds so much fun!! See ya!! (leaves)
Kujuu: I wonder why Yatsuhashi fell in love with a guy like him. Their age difference is like that of a father and a daughter’s.
Otatsu: I don’t know; she probably wanted someone like a father. She said that he drew a picture of her when she first became an oiran.
Kujuu: Ohh, so you’re saying that while he was drawing her, he got her as well, eh?
Otatsu: Haha, don’t be so dirty! She is just very much into the first guy she fell in love with… it’s not an uncommon story, you know.
Kujuu: Hmm? Are you talking about yourself?
Otatsu: Oh, what are you saying! Haha. Hey honey? Do you want to go take a peek at what Yatsuhashi and the waka-danna are up to?
Kujuu: Hehe, let’s!!
Momoyama solo: The big, fat lie (= red) and the moonlight is shining down on the two.
Momoyama & Oiran song: The moon is shining down on the two on this moonlit night.
(Momoyama and the oirans station themselves towards the left of the stage. At center on a raised platform, Jirozaemon and Yatsuhashi are alone drinking sake. Yatsuhashi has her head against Jirozaemon’s shoulder as they sit side by side. To the right, Suama and Einojyo’s room is there.)
Suama: (Pouring sake in Einojyo’s glass, while watching him really closely.)
Einojyo: Hey! What is wrong with you, is there something on my face?
Suama: No… You’re Yatsuhashi dayuu’s “ii hito” right?
Einojyo: Yes…?
Suama: Wow that is awesome! A free-lance love relationship in a place like this! I am going to cheer you guys on!
Einojyo: Ha, free, eh?
Suama: Yes! Oh, and I’ve heard you used to draw pictures. Artists usually feel the urge to draw when they see pretty women, right? (Spreads out her arms) How about me!?
Einojyo: No thanks. I don’t draw anymore.
Suama: Oh, boo!
Einojyo: You’re an interesting girl. Today’s your first day, right? What’s your name?
Suama: Suama!
Einojyo: Suama? Oh, that soft mochi that has got nothing inside?
Suama: It’s delicious, though!
Einojyo: Hey, Suama. What’s the guy who’s with Yatsuhashi now like?
(Yatsuhashi is touching Jirozaemon and kissing him, but he gets all nervous and stands up. Yatsuhashi calms him down and sits him down again.)
Suama: Oh, he’s a rich waka-danna from Sano.
Einojyo: Is he good looking?
Suama: Ohhh no no no. He’s got this huge, ugly bruise on his face!
Einojyo: Bruise? Ohh, it’s that guy? Alright then (stands up) I’m going to go out and play around for a bit.
Suama: Wait, where are you going!?
Einojyo: None of your business. (Smacks Suama’s forehead) I’ll be back later. See ya, Suama!
Suama: Wait, what do you mean “play”! Hey! I said wait!
Momoyama & Oiran song: Sleep well, sleep well, in my arms.
Jirozaemon: Yatsuhashi!
Yatsuhashi: Yes?
Jirozaemon: I think there will come a time when I will not be able to live without you.
Yatsuhashi: Sure. However, I am a product that is sold and bought. Will you always buy me?
Jirozaemon: Of course!! (Jirozaemon hugs Yatsuhashi tightly)
Momoyama & Suama song: Sleep well, sleep well, in my arms.
(To the left of the stage, Bunzaemon and an oiran named Tamaume’s room comes out.)
Bunzaemon: Tamaume! Let me teach you the mechanism of a male and a female.
Tamaume: Bunzaemon-san, you are so dirty!
Bunzaemon: I’m not talking about that! You see, we can talk all about the relationship between a male and a female just with “lie” and “truth.”
Tamaume: “Lie” and “truth”?
Bunzaemon: Yes. You see, in Yoshiwara, the oirans are all lies and the men who visit are the truths. In some cases though, the oiran falls in love with the man and she is the truth and the guy is a lie. That’s the case for Yatsuhashi and Einojyo. Yatsuhashi loves Einojyo, but Einojyo only considers her as a source of money.
Tamaume: The relationship between you and I are “truth” and “truth,” right?
Bunzaemon: No; our relationship consists of a “lie” and a “lie.” You see, I have a wife, and you sleep with other men as well.
Tamaume: But that’s what an oiran does!
Bunzaemon: I know. I think that a “lie” and “lie” relationship is at the highest level in this town. I am worried about the waka-danna… he’s so pure that he will not be able to tell that a lie is a lie…
(Jirozaemon has his head in Yatsuhashi’s lap)
Yatsuhashi solo: Sleep well, sleep well, in my arms.
Momoyama & Suama song: Sleep well, sleep well.
Momoyama solo: Erase the lonely shadow… (walks by herself towards the back of the stage)
Continues to Act 1 (part 4)