In this Showa-era song boom, we interviewed Jun Tablet, who has attracted much attention for his frequent collaborations with the Asagaya Sisters, about his mysterious life.
<figure id="attachment_294680" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-294680" style="width: 3263px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e7d7cd07"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/02/53b29545867b5ea7952dd825e790e91a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-294680" class="wp-caption-text"> He is a mysterious comedian who loves public bathhouses. He keeps his collection of Showa-era song records in a room rented for 8,000 yen by a person he met at a public bathhouse (photo by Mayumi Abe).</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Childhood obsession with the Mahinastars on the radio </h3>
 Jun Tablet was born in 1974 in Tsukui-cho, Kanagawa Prefecture, to parents who worked in the construction industry. He has two older brothers in a family of five. At first glance, the family environment seems normal, but&#8230;.
 My parents wanted me to be a girl, so they made me dress like one from as far back as I can remember. She was introverted and afraid of people, and her speech was slow. Ah&#8230;&#8221; was all she could say, and in kindergarten she was treated like a complete alien.
 In elementary school, he finally began to speak, but he could not tell whether he was a boy or a girl, and he was so bad at sports that even the dodgeball ball did not fly forward. 
 What soothed my lonely heart was the radio. He says he had the pleasant sensation of having someone talk to him.
 As I listened to the programs of Tamaki Hiroshi (a leading song program host), I began to think that the old songs were better than the new ones. In my elementary school graduation album, there was a column for &#8220;favorite celebrity,&#8221; and while everyone else wrote Checkers or Akina Nakamori, I wrote Mahinastars.
 Hiroshi Wada and the Mahinasters (debuted in 1957) were one of the pioneers of Japanese mood chorus groups. As many of you may know, Jun Tablet was to become the youngest and last vocalist in the history of the Mahinastars. 
 He said, &#8220;There are quite a few things I wish I could tell myself back then, that I am glad I am still alive. 
<figure id="attachment_294683" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-294683" style="width: 3129px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5edea523"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/02/a27415c935965cdd9d054513cd8eeef1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-294683" class="wp-caption-text"> He and the Asagaya Sisters are like comrades-in-arms. I was the first to start appearing in the media, and the president of the Asagaya Sisters&#8217; office asked me to help out, so we did joint live performances, etc. After that, the Asagaya Sisters started appearing more and more on TV, and the situation quickly reversed (laughs).</figcaption></figure>

<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" (laughs) &quot;From today on, you are a member.&quot;"></div>
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<h3>My family started to say, &#8220;There&#8217;s something wrong with him&#8230;&#8221;</h3>
 Low self-esteem and a constant escape from reality. Before the mood chorus, he was hooked on GS (Group Sounds) music. 
 I loved the unrealistic world view of the &#8220;Prince&#8221; type of music. I started buying used records when I was in elementary school, and at a store I found a mini-comic magazine called &#8220;GS Tsushin&#8221; by Mr. Susumu Kurosawa (music critic and leading GS researcher), and I started subscribing to it.
 He began correspondence with Mr. Kurosawa in the second grade of junior high school, but at first he lied about his age and name. He was afraid that if people knew his real age, they would think he was creepy.
 By that time, my family began to say, &#8216;There&#8217;s something wrong with him,&#8217; and I began to feel ashamed of my abnormality. I began to feel that I was different from others, that I was like a monster. I didn&#8217;t want to be myself, so I started sending letters pretending to be in my fifties. 
 However, I later learned that Mr. Kurosawa was rather creeped out by my letters because he had the impression that the letters and style of writing were not quite the same.
<figure id="attachment_294686" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-294686" style="width: 2748px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="426492d3"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/02/75e39bb135e00ecda5c10d1985d3b00a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-294686" class="wp-caption-text"> In his childhood, it was natural for people to think he was a girl (photo at left). When she finally began to speak, she and her brother, who was three years older than her, began correspondence with Mr. Susumu Kurosawa.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_294687" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-294687" style="width: 770px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5a5541de"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/02/85dfc4c6496d277e636fc946907b215c.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-294687" class="wp-caption-text"> When she began correspondence with Mr. Susumu Kurosawa. He was so handsome that for a moment I thought, &#8220;&#8230;Ren Nagase? He is so handsome that one would think for a moment, &#8220;&#8230;Ren Nagase? I found Mr. Kurosawa&#8217;s address in the mini-comics magazine &#8220;GS Tsushin,&#8221; so I used to send him questions about GS.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_294688" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-294688" style="width: 2738px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="c8004a09"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/02/31f5fd39a23d846b8b6bb31a41143e49.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-294688" class="wp-caption-text"> This was in high school.</figcaption></figure>
<h3> From today on, you&#8217;re a member of the Mahinastars,&#8221; said Kurosawa, who had longed to be a vocalist of the group.</h3>
 After graduating from high school, I worked part-time at a used bookstore for about eight years. It was a small store in Hachioji with few customers.
 I was asked to sell vinyl books (adult magazines) and to take them down if there was any sign of the police. That was all I did. The president of the company had a punch perm and was completely that way, and his main business was moneylending. Eventually I got caught, but thanks to this part-time job, I didn&#8217;t become a hermit.
 With the president&#8217;s arrest, the restaurant went under and he lost his job. However, his admiration for Mr. Kurosawa gave birth to a dream of creating a mood chorus version of a mini-comic magazine, and he began walking toward that dream.
 I visited a karaoke class run by a member of Mahina and decided to attend. One day, about three months after I started attending the class, I saw a poster in the class saying &#8220;New Mahina Stars&#8221; and learned that Mahina had split in two.
 Suddenly, he was told that the leader (Hiroshi Wada) wanted to meet you, and when he sang in front of Wada, whom he admired, he was told, &#8220;You are a member from today.
 I later learned that the core of the new Mahina Stars had run away just before the recording session, and he called me up and said, &#8220;Oh, by the way, there was a strange guy. When I told Mr. Kurosawa&#8217;s disciple that I was joining Mahina, he seemed to really think that I had finally lost my mind, and froze in silence.
 After joining Mahina, which he had longed to do, and being given the stage name &#8220;Jun Tabuchi&#8221; by Hiroshi Wada, he made his debut in the singing world with smooth sailing! However, things took a turn for the worse.
 The audience felt as if they were standing in a lineup of people they didn&#8217;t know at all. They would yell at me, and my work became less and less.
 Still, they were active for two years, and at the end of the year marked the 50th anniversary of their debut. At the end of the year marking the 50th anniversary of her debut, Pink Martini (an American jazz ensemble), whose collaboration with Saori Yuki later became a worldwide hit, gave Mahina the opportunity to play with them.
 Mahina said, &#8220;I was excited when I received such a great offer just when I was about to lose my job, but I received a phone call at the beginning of the year saying that Mr. Wada had passed away. The Pink Martini story was also put on hold.&#8221;
<figure id="attachment_294689" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-294689" style="width: 1772px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f1685ae6"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/02/2a9277dbd2ffff2e9d585d328cdb52ed.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-294689" class="wp-caption-text"> As Jun Tabuchi (third from right), he is the vocalist of the new Mahinasters. The news of Hiroshi Wada&#8217;s (fourth from right) passing came so suddenly that &#8220;when I got the phone call, I thought it was to inform me of the location of the New Year&#8217;s party.</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Filling in for Wada at the Toyokan in Asakusa, Tokyo"></div>
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<h3>He appeared at the Toyokan in Asakusa as a &#8220;fill-in&#8221;. From singer Jun Tabuchi to comedian Jun Tablet.</h3>
 The new Mahina is disbanded, and the days of drinking begin. He earned quite a lot of money by playing host to duet partners at daytime karaoke bars in Sagamihara.
 I was called by people all over the place saying, &#8220;There&#8217;s a girl who used to be a member of Mahina. I was in such a state that I didn&#8217;t know whether it was day or night because I had to watch the bar while serving drinks.
 It was Nagisa Yoko, who gained popularity for her subculture with Showa-era songs, who saw us in this situation and approached us.
 The magazine &#8220;Switch&#8221; has a special feature on &#8220;young people singing Showa songs today. They wanted me to be in it because they didn&#8217;t have enough people. Nagisa also gave me a push, telling me that if I came to Tokyo, I would be able to engage in more interesting activities.
 The group is active mainly at live houses and has released a CD. They became &#8220;well-known to those in the subculture world,&#8221; but&#8230;. Then, as if by chance, he was approached by Asakusa&#8217;s Toyokan, the comedy hall of fame.
 The manager took the list of names and ran away. The manager took the roster and ran away&#8230; They didn&#8217;t have enough comedians, so I had to rush out, and that&#8217;s how I became a comedian. It was a kind of &#8220;fill-in-the-blanks&#8221; life for me&#8230; I changed my stage name because I was a comedian at the time.
 I changed my stage name because there was an old lady at the time who wanted to raise me as &#8220;Tabuchi Jun,&#8221; in the style of Hikawa Kiyoshi, and she told me to change my name if I wanted to appear at the Toyokan. Well, she ended up being a scam artist, too, and I had to pay a penalty fee even though I had not signed a contract.
 There is a lot of confusing information, but the bottom line is that he was singing nostalgic songs at the Toyokan under the name of Jun Tabuchi, but the scam artist lady got angry with him and changed his name to Jun Tablet. However, the manager who invited him to the Toyokan eventually ran away.
 He said, &#8220;The next manager asked me to approach comedy as well. I did an imitation of Yuuri Osawa, which was quite well received. My current manager saw that and scouted me, and from there I started going to auditions for TV shows.
 As a singer, he had to borrow alcohol to perform on stage, but with comedy, he did not have to decorate himself and could make people laugh with his true self. But with comedy, you don&#8217;t have to decorate, you can just be yourself and have people laugh at you.
 He said, &#8220;Wada-san also said to me, &#8216;You&#8217;re funny. He told me, &#8220;You&#8217;re funny, just go on as you are. He told me, &#8220;You&#8217;re funny just the way you are, and don&#8217;t ever make it up.
<h3> His dream is to appear on Tetsuko&#8217;s Interview. But before that, I have a feeling that there will be some more turmoil. </h3>
 People often tell me that they don&#8217;t know whether I am reserved or aggressive. She is proud of being a &#8220;fountain of negative aura,&#8221; and her life seems to be a series of misfortunes that bring her good fortune.
 Since childhood, he has been suffering from a chronic case of kinbaku (a kind of bondage), and a &#8220;person who can see&#8221; once told him that he was &#8220;possessed by about 3,000 spirits.
 I heard there was a good temple in Osaka, so I once went there with my mother. I heard there was a good temple in Osaka, and I went there with my mother. The monk told me, &#8220;It&#8217;s not that you are possessed, but that you yourself are already half dead. &#8220;When a person sleeps, the power of life diminishes, but in your case, when you sleep, you almost go to the afterlife. If you don&#8217;t improve your life, you will be invited to the afterlife. It was true that I was in such a state that I didn&#8217;t deserve to be told that. But he didn&#8217;t have to say that in front of his mother.
 What are his future prospects?
 I&#8217;m kind of floating around even when I speak on the radio, and I&#8217;m halfway through everything I do. I think I have no choice but to be seen as a kind of special person, but I also have such simple dreams as participating in the Kohaku White Film Festival and being invited to Tetsuko&#8217;s Interview, partly to show my filial piety.
<figure id="attachment_294690" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-294690" style="width: 3360px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="31ff41d6"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/02/207b416bcf3cb394c441c4e534f65470.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-294690" class="wp-caption-text"> On the day of the event, he was teaching &#8220;Oh, My Lovely Songs&#8221; at NHK Culture&#8217;s Aoyama Classroom. Incidentally, the catchphrase of NHK Culture is &#8220;Curiosity and Beyond. That is exactly his way of life, isn&#8217;t it?</figcaption></figure>
 Mr. Jun Tablet continues his unique approach toward various dreams. I would like to conclude by talking about the omikuji fortune he drew at the beginning of the year.
 It was a good omikuji, and it said, &#8220;I was a fish in a pond that had been nearly suffocating until now, but now the water is finally coming in&#8230;&#8221; I thought that was a good omiku, and as I read it, I was told, &#8220;Just when you think you are in, the water is drained again, and you will finally face hardship. Then I read something like, &#8220;Just when you think it&#8217;s in, the water is drained out again, and you&#8217;re finally faced with the hardships of the next stage of the project. I was like, &#8220;You haven&#8217;t done it yet? (Laughs.) It says, &#8220;Your life is full of hardships, but once you get past this point, it will finally be over&#8230;&#8221; So I&#8217;m going to take care of myself and get over this. 
 Jun Tabuchi is a singer and comedian. As a singer, he made his debut in 2002 as the vocalist of &#8220;Hiroshi Wada and the Mahinasters&#8221; under the name Jun Tabuchi. After turning solo, he entered the world of comedy in 2011 with &#8220;Mood Song Comic Storytelling,&#8221; a new genre of entertainment. He has a deep knowledge of Showa-era songs and has written many books, including &#8220;Jun Tabuchi&#8217;s Mood Chorus Holy Land Pilgrimage&#8221; (Yamanaka Kikaku), and many CDs, including &#8220;Sarusuri&#8221; (Columbia Marketing), a song commemorating the 20th anniversary of his debut.

 Freelance writer. I got acquainted with Mr. Jun Tablet a little over 10 years ago. At a memorial event for Susumu Kurosawa, I was struck by the sight of him fainting while singing. Later, when I was looking for a path to comedy, I will never forget the time he suddenly performed a flip trick on stage with Love & Revolution, an acid-folk band. He continued his tricks even though his belt was broken and his pants were about to slip down, and when I saw him get buried in the flips he dropped himself and became unable to move, I thought, "He's got it. I secretly thought, "He's got it. He should go into comedy.

 Ide Chimasa

 Mayumi Abe

 Who the hell is Jun Tablet?　In the midst of the Showa-era song boom, we asked Jun Tablet himself, who has performed with the Asagaya Sisters and is attracting a lot of attention, about his life, which is shrouded in mystery.

Jun Tablet, in junior high school, corresponded with a music critic while pretending to be in his fifties&#8230; His negative aura attracted good fortune&#8230; His spectacular life

Jun Tablet, in junior high school, corresponded with a music critic while pretending to be in his fifties… His negative aura attracted good fortune… His spectacular life

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