<figure id="attachment_223410" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2079px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-223410"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="3ca6ebb0"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/01/a42d1328e0abc289d3232e82ae59225b.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-223410" class="wp-caption-text">A photo of me when I was selling cosmetics. My grades were good, but I had my doubts about the job.</figcaption></figure>
My wife was the one who kept encouraging me. She said, &#8220;If you&#8217;re going to regret it, wait until you try it. You&#8217;ll be fine. I&#8217;ve decided to make rakugo my life&#8217;s work. With my wife&#8217;s encouragement, I gritted my teeth and kept going, determined not to run away.
In an interview with Friday Digital in December 2008, rakugo storyteller Miyaji Katsura (45) said, &#8220;I&#8217;ve been doing rakugo my whole life. It was announced that Miyaji would join the new members. Miyaji appeared as a remote. I&#8217;ll do my best. I&#8217;ll do my best, and I look forward to working with you.
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Miyaji was promoted to shindan in February 2009, the first time in 29 years since Shunputei Shota, president of the Rakugo Arts Association, was chosen without five members. Furthermore, he was a late bloomer, having started his career at the age of 31 after working as a cosmetics salesman. From the interview mentioned above, I would like to introduce Miyaji&#8217;s unique life and his wife&#8217;s words of wisdom that have supported him through his adversity.
 I always wanted to be an actor. After graduating from a boys&#8217; school in Tokyo, I studied for about three years at a theater training school. I went to the school three to four days a week for two hours of instruction a day. But I didn&#8217;t have any talent as an actor. I also developed a habit of borrowing money, and I was borrowing 2 million yen from consumer loans.
 It was at that time. I was introduced to a senior actor and started a part-time job as a cosmetics salesman. I was hooked on this. I gathered 50 to 60 people at mass merchandisers and introduced cosmetics to them, and they sold like hotcakes. When I was a salesperson, I traveled all over the country. I was ranked first or second in the industry, and my annual income was probably double that of a typical salaryman in his 20s.
However, Miyaji gradually began to feel uneasy. However, Miyaji gradually began to feel uneasy: &#8220;Is sales really the job I want to do? When he consulted with his wife, whom he had married when he was an actor, she told him crisply, &#8220;The money is mine.
 I&#8217;ll take care of the money, so just do what you want to do.
His first encounter with rakugo was by chance. I happened to see a performance of &#8220;Jokan-ya&#8221; by Katsura Shijaku on the Internet, and was shocked to find that I had laughed out loud ten times. It was the moment Miyaji realized, &#8220;I might be able to like rakugo. This was the moment when Miyaji felt he might like rakugo.
<h2>Don&#8217;t do that!</h2>
Miyaji started going to yose (parlors) and met his master (Shinji Katsura III). When he went to see a regular performance at the National Engei Hall (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), the moment Shinji came out from the sleeve, smiling and laughing, an electric shock went through his body. That&#8217;s him! I thought. He continued his interview with Miyaji.
 I looked up the master&#8217;s schedule and waited for him at Suehiro-tei (Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo). It was on the third day after the ambush that I was able to talk to him. I told him directly, &#8220;I want to be your apprentice,&#8221; and he took me to a nearby coffee shop.
 When the master heard my age (31 at the time), he was surprised. When I told him I had no knowledge or experience in rakugo, he was surprised twice. The master said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t do that! He said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t do that. There are only a handful of successful rakugo storytellers. You may be destitute for the rest of your life.
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To enter the world of rakugo, it is customary to obtain the approval of one&#8217;s parents, and Miyaji, who was over 30 years old, was invited by his wife. After an hour of talking about the difficulties of making a living in the rakugo world, he finally asked her if she still wanted to be a rakugo storyteller. After an hour of talking about the difficulties of living in the rakugo world, he finally asked her if she still wanted to be a rakugo storyteller.
 She put her hands on the table and replied without hesitation, &#8220;Yes, please do.
Miyaji became a student of Shinji in February 2008. However, the reality was not so easy. He did not know how to serve tea, which was different for each person, and was shouted at by his younger colleagues. She also had a child, and to take care of her baby, she sometimes walked late at night with a stroller in her tired body through the Togoshi Ginza (Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo) where she lived.
However, after six months, he became beloved by his seniors, and in March 2012, he was promoted from the mae-za to the nitsume position, and seven months later, in October, he won the grand prize in the rakugo division of the NHK Newcomer&#8217;s Performing Arts Awards. In October, seven months later, he won the grand prize in the Rakugo category of the NHK Newcomer&#8217;s Performance Awards.
 I often felt weak, thinking, &#8216;There&#8217;s no way I can do it. At such times, it was my wife who encouraged me. She said, &#8220;If you&#8217;re going to regret it, wait until you try it. When I was promoted to shinuchi, she said to me, &#8220;Rakugo people are wonderful. She said, &#8220;Rakugo people are wonderful. They see how hard you work and appreciate it. My heart was filled with gratitude.
Now that he is a new member of &#8220;Laugh Track,&#8221; Miyaji will be even busier. However, with the support of his wife, he is sure to overcome any adversity he may face.

 Image provided by the artist

 Miyaji Katsura, a rakugo storyteller who replaced Sanpei Hayashiya as a new member of "Laugh Point," talked about his unique career and his wife's words of wisdom in an interview with Friday Digital in December 2008. Here are some of the moving details.

Miyaji Katsura, a New Member of Laugh-In: “His Wife’s Words of Wisdom That Allowed Him to Change His Career

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