<figure id="attachment_457936" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457936" style="width: 5760px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="68020583"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/92c3ba90a2a6623cd6c6b9d599939ef1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-457936" class="wp-caption-text">He did not seem at all arrogant to the young author. He spoke politely, with a few asides.</figcaption></figure>
<h2> &#8220;Pei, half of the pictures were destroyed in a fire.&#8221;</h2>
 It was the day before the anniversary of the death of my master Sanpei (Sanpei Hayashiya I), &#8230;&#8230; a Buddhist memorial service at a temple in Takenotsuka, Adachi. It was a rally for the Sanpei clan, and they said, &#8220;Sanpei clan, let&#8217;s go for it!&#8221; I was at a Buddhist memorial service at a temple in Takezuka, Adachi. We were about to take a commemorative photo when my phone rang. I said, &#8220;Whose phone is it? And they said, &#8220;It&#8217;s Pei!
 I answered, &#8220;Hello?&#8221; and it was the Akabane Fire Department, and they said, &#8220;Mr. Pei&#8217;s house is burning down. I said to everyone, &#8220;My house is on fire right now!　When I said, &#8220;We&#8217;re in the middle of a fire,&#8221; everyone there clapped their hands and laughed, saying, &#8220;Oh, no! But it was true.
 Pei Hayashiya (84)&#8230;&#8230;, in a pink costume with his wife, Parko, and snapping photos with puns, is a well-known comedian who took a photo last September. The well-known comedian made headlines last September when his house caught fire.
 He prefaced his interview with the following words: &#8220;I am called an &#8216;afterthought comedian,&#8217; and I make a lot of tangents, so be careful ( all comments below are in pertinent parts).
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 After receiving a call about the fire, Pae rushed to his house in Akabane by cab. However, he got stuck in traffic halfway across the 800-meter bridge over the Arakawa River . It was like running the Tokyo Marathon or the Hakone Ekiden (relay race),&#8221; he said, getting out of the car and running. But it was the fire at Pae&#8217;s house that was causing the traffic jam.
 About 30 emergency vehicles, including fire trucks, rushed to his apartment, and the fire was extinguished in two hours. The cause of the fire, which was later discovered, was an electrical leak from an old electrical cord. Newspapers, television, and other media had gathered at the scene.
 I was surprised that a fire caused by a comedian as small as myself would make the news so much. What was also troubling was that my actual age was revealed in the news, even though I had previously made it clear that my age was unknown. TV, newspapers, and weekly magazines all came to me. They wrote, &#8220;Phe, half of your picture was taken off because of the fire.
<figure id="attachment_457938" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457938" style="width: 1515px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b14bf4d3"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/dfec2605f45673276dcbe52ac4b76c8a.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-457938" class="wp-caption-text"> Terry Ito, to whom he owes a debt of gratitude, advised him, &#8220;Visuals are important for comedians, too. Ever since Terry Ito advised us to be flashy, we have been wearing pink all over.</figcaption></figure>
 When they arrived at the scene, they found that the area around their house was flooded, but they were quickly taken to Perko.
 Perko was in an ambulance by their home. She was in a panic, so I went to the hospital with her. Perko was able to get out of the hospital with only a burn on his fingertip. &#8230;&#8230;
 He was lucky that his wife was not seriously injured, but he had no &#8230;&#8230; home to go back to!
 I was so grateful that the mama of a snack bar in Akabane, who was like a boss to me, helped me out with all kinds of things, even loaning me 100,000 yen. That day I stayed at a hotel she introduced to me. After that, I went from one hotel to another, but there were no vacancies at &#8230;&#8230;, so Perko and I stayed at a love hotel in Uguisudani (laughs).
 Even under such circumstances, Pae was getting work as a guest performer at Yose and other events.
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Atashi, I&#39;m a heartless man. ......"></div>
<h2>As the saying goes, &#8220;Where there&#8217;s a devil you throw away, there&#8217;s a man you pick up.</h2>
 I couldn&#8217;t miss work, so I would find a hotel, stay overnight, and then go to work at &#8230;&#8230;. Four cats died in the burnt house &#8211; we call them &#8220;the four&#8221; because they were family members. I had left their remains in a storage room on the first floor of my house, and it had been bothering me for a long time. Perko went to the house to hold a memorial service for them, After that, I thought she was going to her nephew&#8217;s house nearby.
 I&#8217;m a heartless boy. &#8230;&#8230;. 2 days later, I went to see the mom of the snack shop. Two days later, I received a call from the mama of the snack bar saying, &#8220;Perko-san has been taken into custody by the Akabane police! She told me that Perko-san had been taken into custody by the Akabane police. Perko had been wandering around Akabane for some time.
 I later heard that she had eaten at a stand-up noodle shop and asked to stay over at a karaoke box, but was turned down. Perko is hard of hearing and carries a notepad with her so that she can write things down, but I left her alone.
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 Perko is said to have calmed down now, but the couple&#8217;s &#8220;eccentricities&#8221; had been the topic of conversation in the Akabane area before.
 The proprietress, Ebina Kayoko (who passed away last December), called the couple &#8220;Perko&#8221; because they &#8220;lighten up.&#8221; It may be inappropriate to say so, but &#8220;per&#8221; has other nuances as well (laughs). (Laughs.) Some people say she is &#8220;out of touch with the world,&#8221; but if you ask me, she&#8217;s &#8220;optimistic&#8221; (laughs).
 When I told him about the beautiful black-and-white bromide of Perko that I had seen, he said , &#8220;I&#8217;m so happy! and then he stuck his hand into a small handbag he had set aside and continued rummaging through the photos, &#8221; In Perko&#8217;s honor, &#8230;&#8230;, oh no, I can&#8217;t believe it&#8217;s not there at a time like this. &#8230;&#8230;&#8221;. I could see the deep relationship between them.
<figure id="attachment_457940" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457940" style="width: 4284px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ad1ff50e"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/b51f597c35bc0064e9c5b6be45a69ef9.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-457940" class="wp-caption-text"> The topic of Perko came up and he rummaged through his bag. The left shoulder of his pink down had a hole in it from the fire and was a little sooty.</figcaption></figure>
 On September 27, a week after the fire, a new house was found and they were released from their days of moving from one hotel to another. As Pei puts it, &#8220;Just like Pei Paa, if there is something to throw away, there is something to pick up (laughs).&#8221; Taihei Hayashiya (61), a younger disciple of Sanpei, took the initiative in holding a charity event to save Pei Paako Hayashiya.
 Hiromi Iwasaki (67), Terry Ito (76), Keiko Toda (68), and other well-known members participated. The events held in Asakusa and Oi were packed to capacity. 　The amount of money raised was more than expected. 　The donations were more than we had imagined and were enough to compensate for the damages caused by the fire,&#8221; he said.
 However, the next disaster awaited Pae.
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" A &quot;Bae&quot; Story"></div>
<h2>Kin-san and Gin-san&#8217;s golden rule</h2>
 In the year 2026, he lost a digital camera he had just bought, and on January 6, he uploaded a &#8220;missing persons report&#8221; on X (formerly Twitter). In fact, he has lost his digital camera five or six times before, and he says, &#8220;I&#8217; m not Razor Ramon RG, but it&#8217;s a common occurrence (laughs).&#8230;&#8230;
 The place where I lost it was Kita-Akabane station, but I miss the data inside more than the camera. In the past, every time I have lost a camera, I have gotten it back. But this time, maybe it&#8217;s because I didn&#8217;t report it to the police, but it hasn&#8217;t turned up. I thought if I mumbled something on X, it would come out.
 I thought it would come out if I muttered about it on X. But someone in Hokkaido saw my post and sent me a nice camera. I&#8217;m very grateful. But I don&#8217;t really know how to use it (laughs).&#8221;
<figure id="attachment_457944" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457944" style="width: 5760px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="962035d4"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/62bb7558a2437f3de486189cf2941950.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-457944" class="wp-caption-text"> Pei has a hard time operating the digital camera given to her by a fan in Hokkaido. He repeatedly bobbled it, saying, &#8220;It&#8217;s so confusing.</figcaption></figure>
 Apparently, he was having a hard time displaying the images he had taken. He even asked me, &#8220;Hey, don&#8217;t you get it? He even asked the author, &#8220;Hey, don&#8217;t you get it? He has also started using his smartphone&#8217;s camera, saying, &#8220; It &#8216;s apain in the ass,&#8230;&#8230;,&#8221; but he is still amazed at the performance of his smartphone, saying, &#8220;The pictures are good, and I can even upload them directly to X. &#8230;&#8230;.
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 However, after one crisis comes another. The electricity in the house they moved into after the fire was cut off on January 31. The house had not had good sunlight to begin with, but when Pei mentioned the power outage on &#8220;X,&#8221; it was right in the middle of a cold snap that hit the Japanese archipelago.
 It was cold even with the heater on,&#8221; he said. But then the power went out and my &#8230;&#8230; breath was white, and I felt like I was in Siberia. I tried to call, but I was put on hold. Then, someone from TEPCO came to apologize. I said, &#8216;I&#8217;m sorry, too,&#8217; and deleted X&#8217;s post.&#8221;
 Although it is not widely known, Pei was born in Osaka. He had vague ideas about becoming a TV personality or a rakugo performer in the future, but after moving to Tokyo, he lost confidence when he saw a rakugo performance by Yanagiya Koen&#8230;&#8230; young Tachikawa Danshi at a public radio recording in Yurakucho.
 But the Sanpei Hayashiya he saw afterward was a stark contrast. He said, &#8220;A car hit me early on New Year&#8217;s Day and said, &#8216;Ganttan (New Year&#8217;s Day). It was so silly and funny. I thought, &#8216;I can do this, too! 　That was the reason why he became an apprentice of Sanpei .
 He has been performing for 62 years. The three older brothers of the Sanpei I family have passed away, making him the oldest. He is also the oldest in the colorful division of the Rakugo Association to which he belongs.
 I&#8217;m not a good comedian, and I&#8217;m not smart enough to understand the laughs of M-1. In comedy, we often call it the &#8220;Nantoka generation,&#8221; but I am a B.C. comedian, a B.C. comedian. I&#8217;m a &#8220;B.C. comedian.&#8221; It&#8217;s a cottage industry. I can&#8217;t even laugh, and I&#8217;m aware of that. I&#8217;m a forgotten comedian.
<figure id="attachment_457945" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457945" style="width: 5760px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7ec3ec28"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/92876e3e5bb3cb52800396a51fbcf8d9.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-457945" class="wp-caption-text"> In a husky voice, the conversation jumped around from place to place, but in the end, it landed beautifully!</figcaption></figure>
 No such thing. Hayashiya Pei-Par-ko is a unique and original entity.
 Some people say, &#8220;Pei is just Pei,&#8221; or &#8220;It&#8217;s fine as it is. But I don&#8217;t feel good about it. I think that as comedians, we should work hard and try to do something new &#8230;&#8230;, When I watch the Kohaku Uta Gassen, I don&#8217;t recognize more than half of the contestants, even if they are called Snow Man.
 But they have always been comedians. I do guitar comedy as a pin at Yose, and I still have a sales job with Parko. Parko makes me feel gorgeous just by smiling next to me. That&#8217;s all I need.
 I even worked with the 104-year-old Kin-san and Gin-san. My life philosophy is, &#8220;Living long is part of the art. I will continue to be a comedian until I die. Of course, that is only if there is demand (laughs). (Laughs.) When there is no more demand, there is nothing I can do. That&#8217;s how it is with comedians.
 The interview lasted three and a half hours.
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 After the interview, Pei headed home, only to find that he had left his glasses at the interview site. I hurried to catch up with him and found him at the end of the street turning a corner. I quickened my steps and caught up with him &#8230;&#8230; but he was nowhere to be seen.
 &#8220;That &#8230;&#8230;,&#8221; I thought, and saw Pae crouching down at the end of the turn. He was talking happily, but he was also exhausted. And Pei tried not to show it. When I offered him my glasses, saying, &#8220;I forgot something &#8230;&#8230;,&#8221; Pae scooted up shyly, said, &#8220;Thank you,&#8221; and walked away.
 Today, Pei continues to perform his guitar comic storytelling at Yose, while Perko and I work together in the business.
 As the saying goes, &#8220;Longevity is part of the art.
 I hope he and Perko will continue to be healthy and lively for as long as he lives.
<figure id="attachment_457948" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-457948" style="width: 3840px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="554ffbc7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/02/4c34256d4b3a9d1d4ece02df008123f1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-457948" class="wp-caption-text"> Pae toddles toward the ticket gate at the east exit of Akabane Station. It is a familiar sight to local residents of Akabane.</figcaption></figure>

 Tsuyoshi Nodo

 Hayashiya Pei is one of the most famous people in Akabane and a veteran comedian. After a fire broke out at his home, he was plagued by a series of mishaps. Yet, Pae never ceases to make us laugh. This is because he is supported by the philosophy of life given to him by Kin-san and Gin-san.

 If that's what they call the "comedy generation," then I am a B.C. comedian.

Monologue] Perko and a love hotel, loss of a camera, and a series of other mishaps&#8230; Hayashiya Pei&#8217;s philosophy of life is &#8220;Longevity is a part of art.

Monologue] Perko and a love hotel, loss of a camera, and a series of other mishaps… Hayashiya Pei’s philosophy of life is “Longevity is a part of art.

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