Shiguma’s Art, or: the Art of Living | Part 2

[antigonewinchester]

Second part, again with a few minor edits.

Part 2

In chapter 121, Akane reflects on how much she admires Shiguma as her teacher:

AKANE: If I’d so much as put a single button on wrong, I might’ve gone down the path of rakugo out of obligation and revenge. But the reason that didn’t happen is thanks to master. He never does anything halfway, even dancing and having fun and cavorting. What master taught me is how to enjoy the world of rakugo!!

Then in chapter 122, we see Shiguma comment on Akane’s similarity to Kiroku:

GAKUMON: It’s quite impressive. Performing at an event patronized by many of your long-term fans, and leaping freely about from moment to moment.

SHIGUMA: Well, that’s because she’s inherited, more than anyone else, the essence of Shiguma.

Unlike Issho, Akane didn’t end up going down the path of rakugo out of revenge, obligation, or atonement—although her father’s expulsion drove her to learn rakugo (paralleling Issho’s horror at seeing his own teacher expelled and his reaction to it), Akane stays with rakugo because she loves and enjoys it. It would be easy to say Kiroku was joyful, Akane is joyful, and Issho is not, and that being the reason Akane can inherit “Shiguma’s Art.” And while that’s certainly a part of it, I want to return to the question of strength to look at how Akane dealt with the question of weakness, in contrast to Issho.

Akane’s enjoyment of rakugo is visualized on the page by a child version of Akane, and there’s another key moment when a child version of Akane appears: during her performance of "Changing Time" in chapter 70 of Ikken’s selection event.


During this event, Akane sees many other rakugokas-in-training, each with their own reasons for pursuing rakugo. And when she looks back at her father’s art, she now can see… a weak rakugoka. Yet her child self asks:

CHILD AKANE: But wait… Rakugo stories are your friends. Does that mean weak people can’t have friends? Does a rakugoka have to be strong?

Akane ultimately acknowledges her father’s weakness:

AKANE: Up until now, I thought dad’s art was incredible. It was a dream I chased after. But because of that, I lost sight of the true nature of his art. My dad isn’t strong like them. But that’s exactly why the people in my dad’s stories feel so kind and warm. That’s it. I realize now that it was dad’s weakness I loved.

Akane doesn’t just accept her father’s weakness—his weakness is why she loves him and his art.

Shiguma and Maikeru, watching her perform, praise her for this acceptance:

SHIGUMA: Rakugo stories are not tales of heroism. They’re full of proud men, drunks, lechers, and fools. They tales of ordinary people who are far from perfect, failing in various ways. And in stories like that, even weakness can be a weapon. It’s fine to be weak. It’s just another flavor of the human experience.

MAIKERU: You’ve figured it out, Akaneru.

It’s fine to be weak—now that sentiment is one that Issho completely rejects. Issho’s contempt for weakness and lionization of strength is particularly highlighted in his expulsion of Shinta. In chapter 27 and 28, when Akane asks him why he expelled Shinta and the other apprentices, he explains it so:

ISSHO: …is it the audience’s applause that makes it a “performance worthy of a Shin’uchi?” When the listener senses your nerves and lends you their support out of sympathy and compassion, is that the performance of a true master? You can say this of acting or music or any other performing art—not just rakugo. Applause comes in response to the art. When applause precedes your art, it is a sign of weakness. And what a Shin’uchi needs to rock solid strength. Anyone whose weakness is visible onstage does not deserve to be an Arakawa Shin’uchi.… Rakugoka are not just entertainers—we are the keepers of a traditional art. We preserve and protect the arts we inherited from our forebears, and pass them down to the next generation. That is the calling of every rakugoka today. Arakawa does not need anyone who would weaken rakugo.

In chapter 126, we learn Issho didn’t just reject Shinta for his weakness, but also because he saw Kiroku within Shinta’s performance:

SHIGUMA: What if [Shinta] was expelled because he chose “Shibahama”?

AKANE: Huh? What…?

SHIGUMA: Or maybe not because it was ‘Shibahama,’ but because it was the previous Shiguma’s ‘Shibahama.’ [Issho] says he’s mourning the state of a rakugo world… and I believe him. But that’s not all it was. He sensed the former Shiguma in it. [ISSHO FLASHBACK: Sounds like I did you a favor, then. Whatever that was, it was not ‘Shibahama.’]

AKANE: Wha…? But… that doesn’t make any sense! You told me yourself!! You don’t know why he expelled him! Besides, why is this coming up now…?!

SHIGUMA: I wasn’t lying about that. But there are things that need no words to understand… Ani-san and I swore an oath that we would protect Master’s art. Shinta was motivated by the same desire. You heard him way he would inherit “Shiguma’s Art,” didn’t you?

Issho saw the echo of Kiroku in Shinta’s rakugo—but how could such a weak rakugoka be worthy of “Shiguma’s Art?” He never could be, and so Issho expelled Shinta to protect his Master’s art from being degraded through weakness. But the question remains: does a rakugoka have to be strong?

During Kiroku’s performance, Issho was turned upside down by his revelation that everything can emerge from nothing:

ISSHO: I thought having nothing was a dead end. But there’s nothing here, and yet… there is everything…

Issho believes an Arakawa Shin’uchi needs to always be strong and can never be weak. But as Shiguma says, being weak is OK, just “another flavor of the human experience.” As Kiroku said, “Laugh when you’re happy!! Cry when you’re sad!!,” and perhaps we could also include, “Falter when you’re nervous!!” And as Akane comes to appreciate, it was her father’s weakness that gave his art a special flavor, making his characters feel warm and kind and real. Everything encompasses everything; nobody can be strong all of the time.

A major reason for the break between Issho and Shiguma, I think, is because Shiguma was never able to master “Shiguma’s Art.” Issho despises Shiguma’s failure to do so, and then rejects Shinta as another possible inheritor because of his weakness. But what if Shiguma’s hesitation and Shinta’s weakness were what allowed them to echo the humanity of Kiroku’s rakugo in the first place? What if a rakugoka could be both strong and weak, cruel and kind, foolish and wise? What if a rakugoka could be, and could reflect, the everything within the human heart?

To “win” against Issho, I think Akane will have to portray the everything of life: Issho’s arrogance and Shiguma’s humility, Maikeru’s individuality and Shinta’s weakness, Koguma’s thoroughness and Kyoji’s strictness, Guriko’s sincerity and Kaisei’s terror, Kiroku’s cheerfulness and goodwill. Life, just as it is.

I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two people besides Akane who were taught “Shiguma’s Art” have lost their places as a rakugoka. Shinta was expelled by Issho, and instead of finding another teacher to continue his rakugo training, he chose to quit rakugo rather than learn from someone other than Shiguma. After Shiguma’s heart attack, the doctors discovered throat cancer, and he decided go through with cancer treatment despite it meaning he lost his voice and had to step away from performing and teaching rakugo.

Both Shinta and Shiguma made their choice—humanity and life over art—and move on with their lives. Particularly with Shinta, we've seen that many characters (Shiguma, Chocho, Taizen, Akane) still feel upset and guilty by his expulsion, but he's left that part of his life behind, and that’s okay. As he says in chapter 96:

SHINTA: I hear you think that my expulsion was your fault? You’re taking this too seriously. And so is my daughter. It’s just rakugo. Do I have regrets? Sure… But I can’t just dwell on the past. It didn’t ruin my life… Uh-oh, look at the time! C'mon, let’s go to the hall.

TAIZEN: I…

SHINTA: What more can you ask for? When your troubles are heavy, putting on a smile is the best thing you can do improve your mood.

TAIZEN: You haven’t changed…

SHINTA: I guess not. Whether I’m a rakugoka or a company salesman… I’m still me.

Although Shinta wasn’t able to carry on “Shiguma’s Art” as a rakugoka, there is a case to be made that he, more than any other character we’ve seen so far, does carry on Kiroku’s art of living. In defying his teacher, Kiroku chose his relationships with Shiguma and Issho over the Miroku myoseki. He had to start over with no name, no career, and no lineage, and moved on with his life to found another rakugo school and become a beloved performer once again. Decades later, Shinta does the same: losing his name as a rakugoka and then finding stability in another career and happiness in the love of his family and friends, and similarly to Kiroku guiding a young Issho, we see Shinta comforting an unhappy friend, wisely helping Taizen get back to the path he wants to walk through life.

Issho’s focus on rakugo and the form of “Shiguma’s Art” means he’s missing Kiroku’s ethos of humanity within his rakugo. When he was young, Kiroku’s performance of Soba Time inspired Issho to utterly change his life by devoting himself to rakugo; for the rest of the audience, it inspired them to enjoy some delicious soba. Shiguma’s Art, and Kiroku’s art, inspires others: go out into the world and live! Poignantly, Issho’s dedication to his art restricts him from this idea, and so perhaps Akane can reach Issho in the same way that Kiroku did: by gently reflecting Issho’s weakness back towards him to provide catharsis and give him a way forward.