The Daily Life and Stage Activities of Showa Performers: Against the Background of Osaka's Entertainment Industry during the Postwar Reconstruction Period
From the 1950s to the 1960s, Osaka revived as a city of laughter and entertainment. Theaters lined the burnt ruins of the city after the war, where the common people forgot their daily lives and were comforted by laughter and song. Manzai (comic dialogue), light entertainment, and rakugo (comic storytelling), mainly performed by Yoshimoto, were once again in the limelight, and the performers who supported them on stage became familiar to the people. However, despite the glamour of the stage, the daily lives of these performers were not always safe.
Performers on the Osaka Gekijo and Radio Osaka stages were not paid much for their performances, and they were forced to make a difficult living by paying for their own costumes and travel expenses. They would perform on stage after stage while exhausted from their regional tours, and backstage, they would encourage each other and hone their craft. Veteran performers strictly instructed the younger ones, and in the world of geisha, there was a coexistence of warmth and strictness like an apprentice. In the backstage area after a performance, the topic of household finances and debts was often discussed, and sometimes small coins were lent or borrowed.
Nevertheless, the comedians found their raison d'être on stage, never forgetting to bring laughter to their audiences. With the rapid economic growth of Japan, the focus of entertainment shifted to television, but the "daily lives of Showa comedians" in local theaters and on the radio are proof of the history of comedians who lived together with the common people during the reconstruction period. They were not entertainers, but people of everyday life, and their appearance symbolized the contradictions and vitality of the Showa era.
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