Art Festivals & Events

The play Yotarō Meoto Tabi (The Journey of Yotarō and his wife) by Onoda Isamu, which was first performed at the Meijiza Theatre in March 1979, is now reborn with the new title, Osome Yotarō Chindōchū (Osome and Yotarō’s Peculiar Travels). Directed by Jitsunashi Satoru, this production sees the actors Watanabe Eri and Yashima Norito pair up for the first time in a comedy. The work is based on Rakugo, which one could say was the origin of Japanese slapstick comedy, and specifically on the two Rakugo stories, Ido no Chawan and Sokotsu no Shisha. It also weaves in elements of Kabuki as it describes a comical journey made by Osome, the daughter of a rice wholesaler, and the hired servant Yotarō through the fifty-three post stations of the Tōkaidō Highway from Edo to Kyōto.