Kika Fujiwara’s renewed popularity as an actress Hiroko Mita’s stock rose after her affair with Shikan Nakamura… The “pecking order and popularity” of the wives of the narien (pear orchard)

As for me, I have married into Narikomaya, and as a wife and mother of three sons, I intend to continue to support the family Kabuki business to the best of my ability. I would appreciate your kind understanding.

In early March, Shukan Post (April 12-19, 2012 issue) reported the fourth affair of Nakamura Shikan VIII, 58, a kabuki actor. It is said that he was driving his own car with his adulterous partner in the passenger seat, heading to an apartment in Atami that the woman rented. In response to this report, Shawan’s wife, Hiroko Mita (58), made the following comment to the magazine.

She said, “This is the fourth time Shikan-san’s infidelity has been reported. If you include the ones that are not publicly known, you can find them at ……. Shawan’s “playful” habits have been well-known since he was young, so it seems that no one in the pears garden is concerned about it. It has been two years since they separated, and I think Mita herself feels that she is not the “wife of Nashien” but the “mother of Nashien” to her three future sons.

Even so, Mita is the wife of Shikan, who stands at the top of the prestigious Narikomaya and Nakamuraya kabuki families, both in name and reality. Her presence is always in the spotlight, so much so that a few years ago there was an article reporting that she was “the next generation of dons among wives in the nashien theater.

Another “Nashien wife” who has always stood out is Norika Fujiwara (52), who wore kimono to the April Grand Kabuki performance at the Kabuki-za Theater (Chuo-ku, Tokyo) until April 26, for her husband Ainosuke Kataoka (52), who was performing in the show from day one. She went to the theater. She is also putting effort into her entertainment activities.

In the January drama “Divorce No Otoko” (TV Asahi), she played a mysterious beautiful woman who boldly showed off her beautiful legs while wearing only a white shirt with her breasts wide open, and the audience loved her outspoken performance. Laugh and Correct! (Nippon Television Network Corporation), she appeared in “Hanami Hashigo-Tabi,” in which she and Shinji Takeda (51) go to the Sumida River to view cherry blossoms. Her light-hearted talk and quick wit on location were well-received.

So, what do the “wives of Rien” think of Kika?

I think they are doing a very good job.”

So says one of the wives of Nashien.

I have no connection with her. I have the impression that you are studying very hard every day, and your work, which is not visible on the surface, such as greeting people and doing clerical work, has not changed at all. She takes her work very seriously, even the work that is completely invisible to the outside world, such as greeting people and doing paperwork. I wonder when she sleeps, even though she also works in the entertainment industry. Even among the wives of the Ewives of Nashien, there are some who say, “In the future, she will become a symbolic figure like Junko Tomiji (78). I think there are many who are her biggest fans.

Tomiji is the wife of living national treasure Onoe Kikugoro VII (81) and the mother of Terajima Shinobu (51) and Onoe Kikunosuke V (46). She is a great actress herself, having received the Medal with Purple Ribbon and the Order of the Rising Sun. She is said to be so highly acclaimed that she is compared to such “superiors. However, just as kabuki actors have a “rank” according to their family names, it is said that there is a “hierarchy” of wives in Nashien, which is determined by the “rank of the husband” and the “order in which they married.

If we are talking about “rank,” then the husband, Ainosuke, does not have a very high rank. So, Norika’s “rank” is also low, but nowadays, I think there are few wives in Nashien who are conscious of that. Tomiji, who is also at the top of the so-called “pecking order,” is a person who does not care about such things at all and is very friendly.

The mother of Danjuro Ichikawa Shirasaru XIII (46) is also a very high ranking person, but she is not the type of person who would come out in the open, and I hear that she is easy to talk to anyone. I have the impression that the world of wives in the pear orchard has been brushed up in a modern way. I think that nowadays, respectable people are more popular. Tomiji is still the most popular of them all. Kika is also quite popular.

The day may not be far off when Kika will lead the Kabuki world as the “wife of Nashien.