Japanese Street Wisdom

In this episode of the Japanese Street Wisdom Podcast, I will talk about a quote by Yanagiya Kosanji X (十代目 柳家小三治) who just passed away last month on 7 October 2021. He was one of the three rakugo performers to have ever been awarded the status of the Living National Treasure of Japan (人間国宝).

I was inspired to talk about the wisdom of this legendary performer after listening to an interview between him and Hayashiya Shozo IX (九代目 林家正蔵). As my diction of the Japanese quote was horrible (I’ve been away from Japan too long!), here is the actual quote:

上手くなろうと思わないことですよ。もっと下手でいいの。普通の声でやんなさい。自分の心の声でやんなさいよ。Don’t try to improve. It’s OK to be ordinary. Use your own voice. Listen to your inner voice, and let it out.

As you can see, this episode was recorded 11 days after his departure, and I found it interesting to listen to the recording now as my English translation reflected my interpretation of his message back then.

If I’m to translate it again today, I would probably say “listen to your inner voice, and let your heart speak”. I guess I understand what he meant better now.

This episode has some extra rambling and turned out like Japanese Theatre 101, but hey it’s me, my brain is pretty chaotic inside!

Thank you again, Curtis, for reminding and encouraging me to record another episode!

I am always looking for topics for the podcast, so please do comment below if you have anything you want me to talk about.

Finally, if you know where the high-fiving idea came from, please let me know also!

You can also listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

See you in the next episode!

Hello everybody! Hope you are safe and well!

Welcome to the 4th episode of the Japanese Street Wisdom Podcast.

In this episode, I will introduce a Japanese saying “Un Kon Don” (運根鈍), the Japanese secret of success!

I had never really thought hard about this saying before, but I found it interesting that it is actually heavily influenced by Japanese fatalism and our effort to defy it!

Please do let me know what you thought about this episode and/ or your suggestions (for improvement, future content, etc.)!

As in the thumbnail above, this podcast is now available both on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!!!

You can also listen to it on my YouTube Channel if you prefer.

Thank you always for your continued support!

Welcome to the 3rd episode of my Japanese Street Wisdom Podcast!!!

Today, I will be talking about a zen saying “Kissa Kippan” (喫茶喫飯 きっさきっぱん).

Please listen to the episode to find out what this maxim means, but this wisdom can be applied to literally everything we do in our lives.

Please do let me know what you thought about it in the comment section below.

I am an actor/ storyteller so find it quite challenging to just narrate, so if you have good advice to improve my presentation style, please let me know as well

This Podcast is now available on Apple Podcasts as well as Spotify!!!

Here’s the link to Apple Podcasts.

Here’s the link to Spotify.

Hi all, Eishi here!!! How’s everything going?

As I mentioned in another blog post, I was voiceless for a while, but my voice is now about 90% back!!!

It’s about time for Episode 2 of my Japanese Street Wisdom Podcast.

In this episode, I will be talking about a very famous yakuza called Shimizuno Jirocho.

If you still remember what I said in the first episode, I did promise that this podcast would not be about yakuza, but here you go.

Me being me, I couldn’t resist it! Hope you’ll enjoy it!

My podcast is now available on Spotify as well!!!

Photo Attribution

Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hi everybody! Hope everything is well with you!

I am letting you know that my new podcast is just about to go live… as soon as I post this blog entry!!!

The show is called ‘Japanese Street Wisdom– A Rakugo Performer’s Musings’, and I will be talking about Japanese wisdom from the past that I learn through my rakugo practice.

As you can see, it is still a rough-cut, but I NEEDED to post the first episode asap as it is the first step nonetheless, and from now on it will force me to keep posting new episodes.

The bright side of posting the first episode anyway, regardless of its quality, is that from here onward, it will always be up and up!!!

It will be also available on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.

Thank you always for your continued support!!!