{"id":2875,"date":"2024-08-30T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/?p=2875"},"modified":"2024-09-01T04:57:09","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T10:57:09","slug":"berubara-and-i-setouchi-miya-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/30\/berubara-and-i-setouchi-miya-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Berubara and I – Setouchi Miya (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This book, which is something of an \u2018oral history\u2019 of Takarazuka\u2019s Rose of Versailles<\/em> adaptations, was published by Ascom in late 2005, and features chronological accounts from otokoyaku who had performed in the franchise from its first origins through the 2001 productions. Since the book is derived from transcriptions of interviews taking place often many decades after the fact, there may be discrepancies between accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please note that the term appearing through the text as \u2018theatre-comic\u2019 is translated from the Japanese term gekiga <\/em>[\u5287\u753b]. Although this term is described as applying to mainly male-oriented comics in most English-language sources, this is no longer accurate. The definition of this word has changed to also include sweeping, romantic female-oriented works with Rose of Versailles being arguably the most famous of theatre-comics. Takarazuka even published its own magazine of theatre-comics in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapters have been split in two to make them more readable without too much scrolling to reach the explanatory footnotes. Some paragraph breaks have also been added for ease of reading in English. I have also included (or will include when time allows) some images printed in the book as well as sourcing many other archival images to illustrate the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Being surrounded is so embarrassing!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, the intensity of the fans at the time was really incredible. In the first place, the original work by Ikeda Riyoko was hugely popular, right? So on top of the fans we already had [in Takarazuka], we had a flood of fans of the original work, so there was a terrific uproar at the stage door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fans nowadays will wait at the stage door in nice tidy lines, but there weren\u2019t any rules like that back then. It was complete disorder, and people would come rushing up in droves\u2014it was like the Goths invading the Roman Empire (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Setouchi offstage (Kageki, Sept 1978)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Half of me was impressed by the reminder of just how popular Berubara was, but I\u2019m also much more introverted than I look, so if I stopped and started signing autographs, I\u2019d be surrounded immediately, but then I\u2019d get really embarrassed and tell them \u201cSorry, I\u2019m too shy for this\u201d and flee the scene as quickly as I could. I don\u2019t know, I thought it would feel nicer, but I\u2019d just start blushing and I couldn\u2019t handle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose that\u2019s just part of my personality. I\u2019m just shy. Even after being Top Star, I worked hard so that we could all make a good show together, rather than to make myself stand out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joined Takarazuka without learning any ballet, or singing, or Japanese dance, or piano, or anything. So even though I couldn\u2019t do anything when I started, Takarazuka taught me about the importance of harmony between people. Everyone does their best in their own position, hoping first of all to make a good show and make the Top Star stand out. \u2018Wasn\u2019t that such a good show, weren\u2019t they all so good in it,\u2019 people will say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if people go to see an ordinary play or revue, they\u2019ll say \u2018Let’s go see Mori Mitsuko,\u2019 or \u2018Let\u2019s go see Funaki Kazuo\u20191<\/sup>, right. But for Takarazuka, it\u2019s only the most dedicated core fans who go to see a specific person, and most people are only telling each other\u2018 Let\u2019s go see Takarazuka\u2019, you see. So it feels like being a Takarazuka Top Star only means that you happen to be getting good roles in a show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I in particular couldn\u2019t do anything, when it came to selecting the shows, I kept recommending that we do things that gave lots of people plenty to do. It\u2019s sort of like I was taking on some of the role of producer as well. So in that way, I was happiest when everyone was able to unite their efforts and put on a good show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got on so well with my comrades back then. We\u2019d have parties all the time and hire out a whole okonomiyaki restaurant, things like that. But if I covered the whole bill for everyone, they\u2019d feel like they had to fuss over me, right? So, you know how my name is \u2018Miya\u20192<\/sup>. I\u2019d ask everyone for 380 yen each (laughs). I don\u2019t drink, but everyone else would drink a ton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, when it came to me, I wasn\u2019t at all conscious of being \u2018Top Star\u2019. I was given my first leading role so very young, after all. I played the Prince in the main cast of The Little Mermaid, and I had such beautiful costumes and was just over the moon. I wasn\u2019t even nervous at that point. I was just like \u2018I\u2019m so happy, so happy~\u2019, wearing my pretty costumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I really should have been more scared back then. I do think it\u2019s good that when you\u2019re young you don\u2019t know what fear is. But once I became Top Star, I started to understand a lot of things, including that \u2018fear\u2019 within myself. So I wished I could start everything over again from the beginning, but I\u2019d already done everything that way\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I could do my shows over again, especially Berubara, I\u2019d like to take it more seriously and think about everything carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My treasure as I stand on stage again<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of now, I\u2019m working on stage once again, but now that I\u2019m going back to the stage after my retirement, I can\u2019t help but feel the power of Berubara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after quitting [Takarazuka], I\u2019m still getting contacted with offers for work like this. And even after going home to Tokushima, I could tell people \u2018You know, I played Andre in The Rose of Versailles\u2019, right? After all, there\u2019s hardly anybody in the country who hasn\u2019t heard of Berubara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After retiring, I spent years away from the stage. During my 20 years as a member of Takarazuka, I\u2019d been playing other people, so while this might be a pretentious thing to say, I felt like I wanted to spend some time living for myself. And in order to become an entrepreneur, I decided to go to America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On your retirement day, you usually go to a party, right? But me, I took off my retirement hakama and left for America right then. All by myself. So I don\u2019t actually have my hakama from back then. I don\u2019t even remember where I took them off (laughs). After rushing to change into Western clothes, I flew out of Kansai Airport bound for San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some reporters actually went all the way to Customs to find out if it was really true. Just like they say, I threw away my past together with those hakama as I flew away in an airplane. Still, I felt more hope than fear. \u201cWell, what can I do now?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m going to become an entrepreneur!\u201d I was totally convinced I\u2019d be a success (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t have anyone I could go to for help over there, so I searched for a part-time job all by myself, and lived over there for about a year. And then, since I wanted to fulfill that promise to myself of \u2018I\u2019m going to become an entrepreneur\u201d, I went back to Tokushima and started a sandwich shop and dance studio. But I didn\u2019t have any experience in management, and hadn\u2019t studied it at all, so of course it couldn\u2019t be expected to go well. I realized how naive my own thinking was, how hard the work was, how tough the world was, and started to doubt myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the writer Tanabe Seiko invited me to be in a production. \u201cIt\u2019s fine if sandwiches are made by somebody else, but you\u2019re the only one who can do this role,\u201d she said, which was far more honor than I deserve. She told me about the show, which was a \u2018Kansai Flower Stage\u20193<\/sup>, to celebrate the historical arts traditions of the Kansai region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Setouchi in a garden, from ‘The Takarazuka: Fairytales of Little Loves’ (Gakken, 1975)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I tried to think what made me feel happier, watching someone leave after eating my sandwiches, or watching someone leave after seeing me perform on stage, and then I thought \u201cWell, maybe I\u2019d like to try going on stage again.\u201d And that\u2019s what made me start performing again once in a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going onstage again now, I feel a different kind of nervousness from when I was in Takarazuka. In Takarazuka, you feel nervous since you don\u2019t want to mess up as part of the organization. But once you get offstage, you can have everyday conversations like \u2018Where should we go to eat tonight?\u2019. Also, you\u2019ll be saying \u2018Next time let\u2019s try to do it more like this,\u2019 and things like that, so you can work and try to improve with the reassurance that there will always be a next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, when I leave my home in Tokushima for a stage job, I\u2019ll work to raise my excitement level while I\u2019m on the airplane, so I can go on stage with fresh feelings. I feel like a person\u2019s way of life always comes out in their atmosphere, so I\u2019ve told my friends \u201cIf you ever get a whiff from me that I\u2019m out walking my dog in the countryside wearing a straw hat, let me know and I\u2019ll quit the stage immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, I think when you\u2019re onstage, with people watching you, you can\u2019t let them see any of your normal life. That\u2019s my consciousness as a professional. It\u2019s what I focus on most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think if I was able to play Andre again the way I am now, I think it would be very different from how it was before. There are a lot of things where \u2018I wish I did it like this, I wish I did it like that\u2019, but I\u2019m so happy to have been able to encounter Berubara as a work and to play Andre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as I stand on stage as an actor once again, I feel that it is one of my greatest treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Berubara Q&A – Setouchi Miya<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – If I say \u2018Takarazuka\u2019, what do you think of?<\/em>
A – I\u2019d like to join once again if I was reborn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – If I say \u2018Berubara\u2019?<\/em>
A – Takarazuka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What message would you currently want to give Oscar?<\/em>
A – You\u2019re a woman, after all, so what if you tried normal cute clothes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What message would you currently want to give Andre?<\/em>
A – It\u2019s a lovely thing to see in a mature man, but don\u2019t hold yourself in too much. You\u2019ll go bald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What message would you currently want to give Fersen?<\/em>
A – You\u2019re a bit self-centered, aren\u2019t you. You do whatever gives you pleasure. Right. You can\u2019t expect to die in your own bed that way (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – If you could request one thing from Takarazuka, what would it be?<\/em>
A – For the sake of the company\u2019s future, you should make the tickets a bit easier to get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – If you were reborn, would you join Takarazuka again?<\/em>
A – Yes. This time I\u2019d like to think over everything and take it seriously. If I\u2019d done that, then when I became Top, and even after that, I think it would have gone a lot differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extra questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What otokoyaku characters have you fallen for as a woman?<\/em>
A – Andre is so easy to understand as an ideal man. But I also liked Satarou, from When the Magnolia Flowers Bloom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What otokoyaku characters do you hate?<\/em>
A – Ashley. He\u2019s too nice. I\u2019d get fed up while I was performing as him. Of course I didn\u2019t let it influence the role, but those feelings would just hit me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What roles would you like to perform again?<\/em>
A – I\u2019d like to do everything from The Star Antares<\/em> over again. The way I am now. I think it might turn into something different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

1 – Popular mainstream performers of the Showa era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 – The numbers ‘3’ and ‘8’ can be pronounced ‘Mi-Ya’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 – \u2018\u4e0a\u65b9\u82b1\u821e\u53f0\u2019 or Kamigata Hana Butai, is a series starting in 1984 to preserve the traditional arts in the Kansai area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book, which is something of an \u2018oral history\u2019 of Takarazuka\u2019s Rose of Versailles adaptations, was published by Ascom in late 2005, and features chronological accounts from otokoyaku who had performed in the franchise from its first origins through the 2001 productions. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26,4],"tags":[255,394,395,362,207,563],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2887,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2875\/revisions\/2887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}