Descending Stories: Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū

Episode 7

Almost twenty episodes in, it's refreshing to learn that Rakugo Shinjuu is still capable of surprising me. While the show is hardly slacking in its second season, I think most people would agree that the majority of its big dramatic punches happened earlier. After all, that first season was about an anguished love triangle. As much as I've loved the recent focus on prying open a dying man's crusty old sepulcher of a heart, it's not quite as conducive to salacious appeal as the game of romantic tug-of-war between a closeted man and a prostitute. With this episode, however, we finally get to revisit one of the oddest (and most controversial) parts of the first season – Miyokichi and Sukeroku's death. When the scene occurred, some viewers condemned it as a stilted and melodramatic misstep in an otherwise dramatically perfect show. There was something about Yakumo's picture-perfect account of seduction and attempted suicide that rang false – as it turned out, people were right to be suspicious.

The version of events we saw in episode 12 (Yakumo tried to seduce Miyokichi into a ménage a trois with him and Sukeroku, she decided to commit murder-suicide with Yakumo instead, and Sukeroku died while trying to prevent Miyokichi from falling into the ravine) was in fact a fabrication invented to protect Konatsu from what really happened. The truth is way less poetic and much more brutal. Basically, Konatsu walked into the aftermath of a violent altercation that involved Yakumo, Sukeroku, and Miyokichi. When she arrived, Yakumo was clutching a bleeding Sukeroku, while Miyokichi was sobbing in the corner next to a discarded knife. Konatsu sees all this, assumes that her daddy has been murdered, and starts freaking the hell out. She blames Yakumo at first, but then Miyokichi rushes up and starts begging for forgiveness, revealing that she stabbed Sukeroku. Konatsu freaks out even harder and starts raining blows on her mom, pushing her toward that precarious balcony. It breaks, Miyokichi starts falling to her death, Sukeroku rushes to save her but gets dragged down too, it all happens so fast. Yakumo manages to grab Konatsu in time, but the other two fall to their deaths.

In less than 30 seconds, these few survivors have been traumatized for life. Konatsu is orphaned, and Yakumo's Last Hope for a happy life with Sukeroku and Miyokichi has been dashed in the worst possible way. Brutal. The one silver lining is that Konatsu's little brain couldn't handle the shock, and when she regained consciousness sometime later, her memories of the event were hazy. This allowed Yakumo to fabricate a version of events that excised her involvement, shifting culpability toward him instead. Yakumo has been keeping this inside of him all this time, letting himself be the target of Konatsu's hatred to spare her the pain of knowing that she accidentally killed her parents.

I can see why he did that. It was probably a mistake to let the lie linger for that long, of course, but there are really no right answers in this situation. Rejecting the questions of culpability that had preoccupied some of our characters (primarily Higuchi), the show flat out says that they were all victims. This makes it all the more tragic that Yakumo has spent so many years casting himself as a villain, partially for Konatsu's sake, and partially out of deep unresolved self-loathing. It's important that this truth gets out because Matsuda (the family's perpetually present manservant) can't stand the conclusion that Higuchi is coming to about Sukeroku and Miyokichi's deaths. Higuchi's been doing some digging, so he knows that something funny went down at that cliffside inn 30 years ago that led to Yakumo's death-seeking behavior, but he hasn't found a direct account of the night's events. He's gradually come to the conclusion that Yakumo was unambiguously the villain in this scenario, which is an impression that Yakumo has actively fostered. Only Matsuda knew the truth about that night and the true extent of his master's masochism, but he can't take it anymore, so he spills the beans and begs them to stop Yakumo. Higuchi seems to repent for his harsh conclusion, while Yotaro – overcome with empathy for everyone involved – breaks down sobbing in Konatsu's arms as soon as he gets home. Konatsu lovingly harangues him for his sensitivity, not knowing that his tears are for her, over information that will shake the foundations of her world.

So yeah. Wow. These last five minutes totally re-contextualize everything that we know about the Yurakutei family drama, so much so that it takes a while to remember anything else that happened in this episode. Starting with the most relevant material, the lead-up to Matsuda's confession consists of Yotaro and Higuchi visiting the fateful inn to watch a recording of Yakumo and Sukeroku performing as young men. This was Sukeroku's final performance – the one where he explored emotions over his poor treatment of Miyokichi and resolved to be a better man. This scene is also heart-wrenching – we haven't seen Sukeroku or young-Kikuhiko for so long that I felt just like Matsuda, crying at the images of these young men, long-dead or now-dying, who I watched grow up. On the subject of Matsuda, he's absolutely become the secret heart of this show. It was great to finally get some payoff from his omnipresence, and I can see the conclusion riding on a few more moments like these. The man has raised three generations of this messy family by now. He is an MVP.

We also get some revelations regarding Higuchi's fixation on Yakumo. It turns out that his family took frequent trips to Miyokichi's hometown, so he's known her since he was a little kid. He'd always been a little enamored with her, and one day, she told him about a rakugoka that she was dating – Kikuhiko. She looked so happy while talking about him that Higuchi had to check the dude out, and so a lifelong obsession was born. I like this bit. It's slightly too reliant on melodramatic convenience for my liking, (an outsider character turns out to have a longstanding personal stake in the entire drama – surprise!) but it helps explain why Higuchi was so eager to cast Yakumo in an antagonistic light. There was always a little competition mixed into the admiration, first as a rival for Miyokichi and then for rejecting his apprenticeship. Then Miyokichi turns up dead following sketch-tastic circumstances involving Yakumo. Yeah, I would harbor something against the guy at that point too. Equally interesting is the revelation that Miyokichi was “sent” to Manchuria. I've researched the reasons why a 20-year-old woman might have been sent to Manchuria in the middle of the occupation, and it looks like this was either part of a resettlement program or as a volunteer comfort woman. There's not a lot of English-language information on the topic, but from what I've been able to glean, you did not want to be one of the civilians left behind when the Japanese army evacuated China. It looks like life has always been hard for Miyokichi, but we can infer from this that sex work may have been her escape from the full-blown horrors of war.

It's worth mentioning that we still don't know what happened that night before Konatsu walked in. The situation could only have played out like Yakumo's version of events to a point. His attempt at seduction, the ménage a trois proposal, and even the attempted murder suicide all still could have happened. If this is the case, my guess is that the point of divergence came from when Sukeroku burst into the room. He probably flipped out at seeing Kiku-san in a compromising position with his lady, which made Miyokichi flip out, which caused the stabbing or something like that. I don't know if we'll ever get the definitive version of these events (probably whenever Konatsu gets told), but there's a deliberate lack of closure to this incomplete recollection. Also, Konatsu absolutely needs to be told at some point. That will be the key event that clears the air between her and Yakumo, allowing them to get over their stupid baggage and develop a healthy father/daughter relationship for whatever time they have left together.

Going back to my old reviews, I don't think I ever gave Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu an A+ before. I feel that's more indicative of the show's consistency than any lack of excellence on its part, but it has finally delivered on an episode that blows the rest of them out of the water. You've earned your A+, Rakugo. You've been playing on hard mode.

Grade: A+

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.