Kitano/Kijujiro/Buffoon--Addition re Furansu-za

[bird at ca.inter.net]

Just a brief interjection - sorry for interrupting the conversation - is that "furansu-za"
as in "France"? 
and why the French connection?

Lawrence Bird
PhD candidate, McGill university

   

       				> It may be useful to point out that the contemporary 
writer Inoue Hisashi, like Kitano,
also hung around the Furansu-za, while he was a student at Jochi/Sophia Univ., and also
learned some of his comedy-writing skills there.
> 
> The Furansu-za was a fairly free-form place, where one could hang around without being
hassled by the management--I am afraid I used to go there myself, too, now and then,
though if I ever encountered Kitano or Inoue I wouldn't have known who they would become.
I'm not sure whether Inoue and Kitano ever met there.
> 
> Inoue Hisashi (different from Inoue Yasushi, and far more interesting, in my opinion)
has
written many plays and successful film scripts and scenarios, not all comedies. One
particularly fine tragic film closely based on an Inoue Hisashi play is Kuroki's Chichi to
Kuraseba, about the atomic bombing and its aftermath in Hiroshima--a film which is part of
Kuroki's WWII Film Trilogy. 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Michael McCaskey <mccaskem at georgetown.edu>
> Date: Thursday, August 10, 2006 9:45 am
> Subject: Re: Kitano/Kijujiro/Buffoon
> 
> > Dear Lorenzo,
> > 
> > You may well already be aware of this, but Kitano began his career 
> > as a comedian, and still does comedy routines in his films, as in 
> > Takeshis' which is I think pretty much completely a comedy--though 
> > others might disagree.
> > 
> > There was and is a theater in Asakusa called the Furansu-za, which 
> > had and has several shows going at the same time at different 
> > levels, perhaps including films. It featured and now features live 
> > variety shows, musical shows, etc. I use the past and present 
> > because the theater became defunct for a while, but has been 
> > restored in recent years. It is the theater across the street from 
> > the cafe Kikujiro and his wife have in the film. Kitano goes over 
> > and looks at the posters.
> > 
> > I think Kitano was involved in the restoration of the theater. The 
> > kabuki actor who plays the onna-gata role in Zatoichi put on a big 
> > musical show there a year or two ago.
> > 
> > When Kitano was starting out, after a fairly unsuccessful attempt 
> > at a regular bourgeois college education (his brother is an 
> > academic), Kitano got a job at the Furansu-za, as an elevator man, 
> > taking customers to the upper show level. He hung around the 
> > theater, and over time learned comedy routines by watching the 
> > shows and getting tips from variety show comedians. The sequence 
> > in Kikujiro where there is a sort of fantasy with traditional 
> > comedians appearing in various outfits may be a tribute to the 
> > Furansu-za and its performers back when Kitano worked there.
> > 
> > Another theme in Kikujiro is that the kid really has few or no 
> > adults to rely on, until he connects with Kikujiro, the traveling 
> > writer, and the Gothic Bikers--all played by old Kitano friends. 
> > The same way that perhaps Kitano himself found a substitute family 
> > and support group at the Furansu-za in his early days.
> > 
> > In the film, Kitano sort of plays himself back when he worked at 
> > the Furansu-za, wearing the same wooden "beach clogs" he wore 
> > then. The kid plays Kitano when he was a child, and used to go to 
> > Asakusa and hang around, since his own home life was pretty grim, 
> > and his father was very abusive.
> > 
> > The man Kikujiro meets at the deserted bus stop who seems so 
> > irritating is actually a comedian Kitano worked together with for 
> > years, as the Two Beats. I think he worked with him back at the 
> > Furansu-za too. This man now has retired and owns a restaurant 
> > somewhere, but made a guest appearance in the film as a memento of 
> > the old days.
> > 
> > You can read about Kitano's early days at the Furansu-za in 
> > Asakusa Kid, by Kitano. There is a French translation, Asakusa 
> > Kid, ISBN 2-84261-279-5, Paris: Le Serpent a Plumes, 2001.
> > 
> > Kitano has written a long series of autobiographical books and 
> > many, many essays about himself and his work. Unfortunately, as 
> > far as I know, almost none of this small library of writing by 
> > Kitano himself is available in English, and only bits in French.
> > 
> > The two books in English now available that may be helpful to you are:
> > 
> > 1) 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, ISBN 0-9527951-1-6, London: Tadao Press 
> > 1999--a collection of essays, trans. from Japanese--you may esp. 
> > like "A Comedian Star is Born," by Machiyama Tomohiro, pp. 104-
> > 113, which has more information on what is in this e-mail.
> > 
> > 2) Beat Takeshi vs. Takeshi Kitano, by Abe Casio, trans. from 
> > Japanese (1994), pub. in English New York: Kaya Press, 2003(?)
> > 
> > Aaron Gerow will soon have a definitive book on Kitano published--
> > Gerow is the leading US authority on Kitano. His book should fill 
> > the gap that exists now in English re Kitano and his work. He will 
> > have the best information about Kitano's career as a comedian.
> > 
> > With Best Wishes,
> > 
> > Michael McCaskey
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Lorenzo Javier Torres Hortelano <ljth2006 at gmail.com>
> > Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2006 3:42 am
> > Subject: Kitano/Kijujiro/Buffoon
> > 
> > > I'm writng an article about the the buffoon figure or concept 
> > (jester,> clown) created in Kitano's "Kikujiro no natsu". I've 
> > have arrived 
> > > to some
> > > questions I can't resolve by myself and would like to share it 
> > > with all of
> > > you:
> > > 
> > > 1) Could be found a cultural tradition of the buffoon in Japan 
> > > similar to
> > > that of European Courts in the Middle Age?
> > > 2) Could Kitano be considered as a buffon in the contemporary 
> > > Japane popular
> > > culture?
> > > 3) Do you know any term in Kabuki related or similar to the buffoon
> > > character?
> > > 4) Would you agree that Kitano is a comedy actor and that in 
> > > "Kikujiro" he
> > > acts, besides, as a buffoon?
> > > 5) Do you konw about any terms in contemporary popular culture 
> > in 
> > > Japan to
> > > tell the difference between comedy actor and buffoon?
> > > 
> > > Any bibliograhic reference about the subject will be very welcome.
> > > 
> > > Thanks in advance!
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano
> > > Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
> > > Madrid, Spain
> > > 
> > 
> > 
>