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What are your thoughts on the (potentially) big plot twist in the ending of shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu? (I tried to see if you'd already written about it, but I couldn't find anything and I was curious so I wanted to ask!)

☆_☆ i can’t even express how happy i am to get this ask. thank you so much for being interested!!!! i was planning on writing this out, actually, but you’ve given me the motivation…

so to start out with… let’s consider the twist… Higuchi kind of dances around outright suggesting it, and then he says:

But, if my supposition is true, then that boy carries the blood of both Sukeroku and Yakumo. Such an exciting thought sends chills up my spine.

of course, in many, many ways, Shinnosuke DOES carry the ‘blood’ of them both… Sukeroku and Yakumo/Kikuhiko were the shining hope of rakugo in the tumultuous times post-war when it seemed like rakugo might get swept away by the new era coming in. all the new laws and restrictions, the new technology, the new influences… they each had their own 'role’ they’d agreed on to keep rakugo alive… sukeroku was going to be the innovator who kept the world of rakugo current with the interests of new people, and kikuhiko was going to protect the traditions of rakugo. then, when sukeroku died… kikuhiko knew he couldn’t be the innovator, so he expected/wanted rakugo to die with him.

then, enter konatsu, yotarou, and shinnosuke. konatsu serves as both a bridge from the past to the present, since she remembers her father’s rakugo and was at kikuhiko’s side for so long, but she’s also an innovator, since she will be the first female rakugo star in the newly rebuilt (symbolism!!!) rakugo theater. yotarou is a bridge, too, since he has sukeroku’s spirit and energy, but admires and loves kikuhiko so much and was his pupil.

shinnosuke is the new era brought to life. he is sukeroku’s grandson, but he’s never met sukeroku. he looked just liked him as a child, but he called kikuhiko 'grandpa’ and he admired and loved him so much, he grew up to have kikuhiko’s bearing and manners and elegance. in every IMPORTANT WAY, then, YES, shinnosuke IS the one who carries the blood of both Sukeroku and Yakumo, the traditional innovator who ushers in the new era of rakugo, symbolically underlined by the fact that he was the first to perform in the newly opened theater.

in every important way. but. does he… literally?

konatsu’s answer is very interesting, mainly in how she refuses to confirm or deny. and, in so doing, she weaves a tale that leaves her audience believing that she has, in fact, confirmed. and.

that’s actually the point.

Higuchi, a storyteller of a different kind, said it himself. it’s an exciting thought. A GOOD STORY. and that’s why he can’t let go of the idea, even to the point of suggesting to the woman herself that she had an affair with her foster father.

and that’s what konatsu WANTS him to believe in… the good story. and, like all good stories, it has grains of truth in it. blood is one thing, but being raised by a man will absolutely have an effect on a child, too. a foster/adopted parent is still a parent, and a foster/adopted grandparent is still a grandparent. let’s look at konatsu’s words more carefully… let’s assume that konatsu didn’t tell any lies, but she chose the facts she shared with care to tell a good story.

this is getting super long, so please click the link…

The boss, the mistress, and Yakumo-san have all passed away! That only leaves me. I’ll be taking it to Hell with me!

what’s really interesting here is that she implies that ONLY the boss, the mistress, and yakumo-san knew the father of her son, besides herself. in one respect, that might imply that either the boss or yakumo-san is the father, but it could also just mean that even the father himself doesn’t know, but those three besides herself did.

I had Shinnosuke for Sukeroku’s sake. And for Yakumo’s sake, too. So that he could think, “I’m glad I kept doing rakugo.” I wasn’t wrong about that, and I don’t have a single regret regarding it.

two interesting points here: that she says she had him for SUKEROKU’S sake, not for my father’s sake, that is… she had him because she wanted the NAME sukeroku to potentially continue. (though, shinnosuke took his other grandfather’s name, ha). and. that she was aware, even at that point, that kikuhiko’s motivation for rakugo was suffering, or that his will to live was suffering. she wanted him to have a grandchild to tell stories to, and to be glad that he had, and she has no regrets. which means… the influence that kikuhiko has had on shinnosuke is exactly what she was hoping for when she decided to have him.

When I was young, I was at the center of a whirlwind of feelings toward Master Yakumo. Hatred, obsession, jealousy, envy… [pictured is younger yakumo and teenaged konatsu] Too many for me to bear at such a young age. But if I were to sum it all up, perhaps the feeling was “romantic love”? Of course, I dumped all those feelings a long time ago. So much suffering and angst! What an exhausting time youth is! I’d never want to go back to it. Oh, but I’ve said too much.

lol, that’s 'oh, but i’ve said too much’ pretty much PROVES that she knows that she’s led Higuchi to the conclusion she wants him to reach, but it also proves that it’s a story… OK SO HERE’S THE REALLY IMPORTANT POINT. when she talks about the “romantic love” she felt for kikuhiko… she is clearly and explicitly talking about when she was a TEENAGER. this is underscored, too, in the extra chapter in the manga where we see a high school aged konatsu running wild, and trying to join the yakuza. (lol, and she mocked yotarou for that later… maybe those two are much more alike than she’d be willing to admit, huh…) this shows, too, how the boss, the mistress, and kikuhiko were all involved and aware of konatsu’s wild period in her youth, when she was troubled by her romantic love for kikuhiko.

IN HER YOUTH.

she doesn’t get pregnant with shinnosuke, though, until toward the end of season 1!!! she also clearly and explicitly says I DUMPED ALL THOSE FEELINGS A LONG TIME AGO. that’s even why i emphasized that when she was thinking back to her “romantic love” for kikuhiko, she was thinking back to when she was a TEENAGER. she was much older when she got pregnant.

this leaves us with one of two possible scenarios. either konatsu and kikuhiko were having a long-term affair which continued through most of season 1, at least, or her romantic feelings for kikuhiko passed and someone else is shinnosuke’s father.

which is more likely?

konatsu’s feelings for kikuhiko, even in season 1, were always a jumble. she hated him, she blamed him for her father’s (parents’) death(s), she knew, though, that she didn’t remember everything about that night, she admired him, she resented him, she thought of him as a father, she admired him as a man… her feelings for him have ALWAYS been a storm. even when they first met!!! remember, she was being rude to him and trying to hustle him but when she found out he was a rakugo storyteller, she was drawn to him, but she still loved her father’s stories the best…

is it likely that she and kikuhiko were lovers, then, in season 1? to me… that answer is no. it’s intentionally left to be up in the air, but… i think there are enough clues that suggest that no, he’s not. he is, in EVERY sense, as i mentioned before, shinnosuke’s grandfather, and he was a huge influence on him…

a couple of things about kikuhiko. i will believe to the very core of my being, no matter what, that:a) he is bi/pan, and that he probably is genderqueer, or at least doesn’t fit into any prescribed gender roleb) he absolutely was in love with sukerokuc) he absolutely was also in love with miyokichiandd) his ideal future would have involved living happily every after raising konatsu with sukeroku and miyokichi in a comfortable triad, with lots of give and take between the three of themBUT. of all the women in his life, miyokichi was the one he loved the most and best, AND YET, she complained to sukeroku about how kiku never wanted to have sex with her (the time she surprises sukeroku by opening up her kimono for him). SO if kikuhiku wasn’t that interested in sex WITH THE WOMAN HE LOVED THE MOST IN HIS LIFE, then why would he want to have sex with her daughter?

so, no, i don’t think they did. i think konatsu, though, wanted to leave Higuchi believing whatever he wanted because it was a GOOD STORY and because there were grains of truth to it, in that shinnosuke really does carry the 'blood’ of sukeroku and kikuhiko (at least in his rakugo).

i do have an idea about who shinnosuke’s father is, but it’s just my own idea, and it’s not exactly supported by the text… but it would go a step further in showing how there was truth to Higuchi’s idea…

there’s one 'character’ in the story who was basically forgotten before the story even began… kikuhiko’s mother. she was a geisha who the seventh generation 'owed a favor to’ and so he took kikuhiko in after he was injured. now, the mistress konatsu refers to would have known kikuhiko’s mother, because she was a geisha in the same 'house’, which is how she knew miyokichi (the seventh generation brought miyokichi to her when he needed to find a place for her after Manchuria…) and, what typically happens to geisha as they age? since kikuhiko’s mother is not a part of the story, that would imply that she’s no longer working with the mistress, even when miyokichi was working there. which would probably mean…

that she got married.

and, it’s super super likely that she had more children.

and, if we can assume that kikuhiko takes after his mother (and i think we can for lots of reasons), it might stand to reason that he could have a half-brother who also takes after their shared mother.

imagine, then, if this half-brother comes, by chance, to the mistress’ place when konatsu is working there, maybe because he’s being entertained by some business contact or something. she’ll recognize him immediately, even without knowing who he is. so will the mistress and the boss, if he’s there. and imagine konatsu, with all her mixed-up feelings toward kikuhiko, meeting a random stranger who looks like him and has some of his mannerisms? if he hit on her, of course she’d respond, even despite herself. and if they had a tryst…

but, why would the mistress and the boss want to keep his identity a secret?

well… to protect kikuhiko’s mother, who is living a new life far separated from her life as a geisha. after all, she had kikuhiko WHILE STILL WORKING AS A GEISHA. that’s not exactly… 'kosher’, as it were. her new husband, her new life, her children… in order to protect those things for kikuhiko’s mother, the mistress (and i’m guessing the boss, since the boss and the mistress are so close) would want to keep her son from learning of his famous older half-brother. kikuhiko himself likely wanted nothing to do with his mother’s children, for lots of reasons.

and. if konatsu did have a tryst with kikuhiko’s half brother… and that’s shinnosuke’s father… well… kikuhiko and his half brother would share 1/8 of their genome (full siblings have ¼ the same genome, so a half brother would have half that…) meaning…

kikuhiko and shinnosuke would be as closely related as… if shinnosuke was kikuhiko’s grand nephew. seriously.

in other words, maybe EVERYTHING Higuchi wanted to believe WAS true, shinnosuke DOES carry the blood of both sukeroku and kikuhiko, just… not in the way that he thinks. but, since there’s no reason to bring kikuhiku’s mother’s family into things… she just leaves him to believe whatever he wants.

anyway, that’s what i think and i’m sticking to it, because no way in hell am i believing kikuhiko and konatsu were lovers in season 1. =p

yay i’m so verbose whoops…

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