Stalker Damage” Plagues Momoka Chokarou, a Female Rakugo Storyteller on “Laughing Point

Momoka Chokarou is a popular rakugo performer who is “an idol of old men. She is a female comedian who was introduced to Shunputei Koasa at the age of 25.

In March of this year, she was promoted to the new shinuchi rank in the Rakugo Association, to which she belongs, further accelerating her recognition among the general public. Although she serves as the chief performer at the debut performance, a persistent barometer of her popularity in the rakugo world after her promotion is how quickly she can get a tori at a regular performance. This is because there are many shin’uchi who have never won a tori since their promotion.

Momoka carried the momentum from her debut performance into July of this year, when she was asked to perform as a trili in the daytime section of the Asakusa Engei Hall’s lower division (21 to 30 July). This is the fastest time for Momoka to be promoted to a major role in four months, surpassing the five-month career of Harufutei Ichinosuke, who is popular in the media and other media.

He has recently appeared on the popular entertainment program “Laugh Spot” (Nippon Television) as a stand-in for Sanyutei Enraku, who is recuperating from an illness. She is not only an “old man’s idol,” but is becoming a new star of the rakugo world.

With her cute facial expression, behavior, and natural cheerfulness, she began to attract fans when she was a maeza performer, and by the time she became a nikumena (second performer), she began to attract a devoted audience.

Before we get into the “extraordinary situation” that led her to become involved in, let me tell you about the first day of the big show to announce her promotion to the rank of “shinuchi” at Suzumoto Engeijo in Ueno, Tokyo, on March 21 of this year.

An entertainment writer who was at the venue as a guest on that day reported, “It was packed.

It was packed. This spring, four members of the troupe, including Momoka, were promoted to the rank of “shauchi,” and at the unveiling performance, the four members of the troupe would perform the role of “torii,” or the last performer, on a daily basis. Therefore, the number of audience members depends on who takes the role of Tori. After Suzumoto, they spent 50 days touring Yose theaters in Tokyo, and all of them were sold out on the day Momoka took the role of Tori. It showed the difference in our mobilizing power.

However, the audience was clearly different from the other three performers.

Most of the guests, almost 90%, were male. And they were overwhelmingly middle-aged and older. In the past, male audiences were common at yose, but in recent years there have been many female audiences as well. In the case of Momoka, however, the opposite is true. It was as if the clock had turned back.

Yose has a break in the middle of the show. Usually, there is a line for the women’s restroom, but on this particular day, the women’s restroom was empty. The women’s restroom was empty, and the line for the men’s restroom on the fourth floor (there is also one on the second floor) extended all the way to the audience seats on the third floor. Some people were cynical, saying it was probably due to the large number of men of a certain age who had trouble urinating out of their urine.

Whether male or female, for comedians whose livelihood depends on performances at yose or rakugo performances, the customer is God, and the customer is the source of life that sustains their livelihood.

Very few entertainers have a major sponsor, or “odan” in the rakugo world, and most of them cherish each and every customer who comes to their performances. This is the reason why most performers make an effort to attract their own customers even when they are young.

In the rakugo world in Tokyo, there are comedians who always have a party after their rakugo performance, and the party and the party are a set. For some comedians, the party and the party are a set. For them, this is also a sales activity to attract customers.

Young comedians, in particular, cannot refuse an invitation to a launch party from the organizer of their own party. At rakugo performances held at restaurants and other venues, it is commonplace to include a launch party. Naturally, guests come to the launch. There, you can get close to the comedian.

It is reported that to get close to a Takarazuka star, you need to spend tens of thousands of yen for a meal, but a rakugo performer’s launch is a normal drinking party, and the fee is only a few thousand yen. Momoka also used to hold and attend launches when she was younger, but at one point her master, Koasa, issued a “launch ban” because Momoka had been the victim of a stalker. This was because Momoka was becoming the victim of a stalker,” said a person related to Yose.

The “outrageous situation” mentioned above refers to stalking. Unlike the entertainment industry, rakugo storytellers are basically private businesses. Only a small percentage of them belong to production companies. Therefore, when they want to attract customers to their own performances, they send out postcards and e-mails by themselves (currently, many comedians use SNS and LINE to call their audiences). (Many comedians now use social networking sites and LINE to call out to their audiences.) The cell phone number and address are also known to the audience.

A person involved in the Yose business continues, “Eventually, there are enough stalkers that the police get involved.

It is a common occurrence among female comedians that male customers reveal their true nature to them before they know it. One day, I heard that a customer I knew well was waiting for me in front of my apartment when I came home, or that the customer had moved to a place near the station where my house is located. Some storytellers consulted the police.

There are also comedians who shut down with a snap when they come in contact with their feminine side. For example, Azumi Hayashiya, who is now married but was a disciple of Taihei Hayashiya, was tall and beautiful and had many male customers. If they made even the slightest reference to her appearance, she would thank them with a smile, but then would quickly and firmly tell them, “Please just watch my art. However, if they came to my house, I would have been out of my depth.

If there is a rakugo performance at a venue with seating for about 20 people, you are not just an “idol you can go see,” but a “rakugo artist you can go see. And you can even have drinks with them at the end of the show. There is no stopping men who misunderstand and deviate from their position as customers.

In the case of Momoka’s stalker, the police were involved and a warning was issued. However, there are other last-minute fans who are too enthusiastic. I heard that when she once went to an overseas performance, she was surprised to see the face of a Japanese man who often comes to her meetings at that venue, and also the face of a customer from Tokyo at a performance in an area affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

If people want to hear Momoka’s rakugo, they can hear it here and there in Tokyo, so there is little point in going all the way overseas or to the disaster area. For the comedian herself, it is nothing but fear.

Momoka belongs to a major entertainment company, Toho Entertainment, to protect herself from stalkers. Fearing that her personal information, including her address, may be leaked, she has taken measures such as making her office the address listed in a treasure book (numbered to prevent loss) in which rakugo storytellers’ addresses and telephone numbers are written.

The personal e-mail address will also be discontinued in the near future, and from now on, they will limit the e-mail address to one that can be shared and read by the office staff as well.

There is a great rakugo story called “Izari Zaheiji. In the story, the audience is categorized as follows.

The upper class never comes, the middle class comes at noon and goes home for lunch, the lower class comes at night and goes home in the morning, the lower class stays, and the lower class below that class stays.

Even if it is difficult to become a superior customer who only brings money without coming to play, I wish more customers would keep a good distance from rakugo performers and not approach them too closely….