GRATEFUL CRANE’S KOUHAKU SPOOF COMING TO TORRANCE
Lively send-up of the popular singing contest set for Feb. 2.
The Rafu Shimpo: Los Angeles Daily Japanese News

TORRANCE — “Natsukashi no Kouhaku Uta Gassen,” a nostalgic and entertaining spoof of Japan’s famous New Year’s Eve singing contest, will be returning to Southern California on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 2 p.m. at the James Armstrong Theatre in Torrance.

Presented by the Grateful Crane Ensemble, this two-act show features 28 hits in the singing contest format made popular every year on NHK’s nationally televised “Kouhaku Uta Gassen.” Grateful Crane’s version pits the Red Team (women) vs. the White Team (men) as they portray some of Japan’s most famous singers singing their most famous songs. At the end of the show, the winner of the contest will be determined by a vote from the audience.

In 2010, Grateful Crane performed this show to three sold-out audiences at the Japanese American National Museum’s Tateuchi Democracy Forum.

“People had so much fun back in 2010 that we decided to bring it back,” said Soji Kashiwagi, executive producer of Grateful Crane. “This show is a fun way to present the nostalgic songs that our audiences like. But it’s also a celebration of a long-standing tradition of Japanese Americans and Japanese from Japan watching ‘Kouhaku’ every New Year’s Eve here in America,” he said.

What makes “Natsukashi no Kouhaku Uta Gassen” unique and different, he explained, is that this show is a spoof and all the performers are doing “monomane,” or humorous impressions of famous Japanese singers such as Misora Hibara, Sen Masao, Itsuki Hiroshi, Yamaguchi Momoe, Mikawa Kenichi, SMAP, Saijo Hideki, Go Hiromi and Nakamura Mitsuko, to name a few.

Popular songs such as “Kitaguni no Haru,” “Ringo Oiwake,” “Yuraku-Cho de Aimashou,” “Kawachi Otoko Bushi,” and “Sen no Kaze ni Natte” will be featured along with many more.

Directed by long-time Grateful Crane member Keiko Kawashima, the show features Aaron Aoki, Loryce Hashimoto, Haruye Ioka, Kawashima, Hideo Kimura, Darrell Kunitomi, Kurt Kuniyoshi, Aimee Machida, Merv Maruyama, Junko Nakamura, Helen H. Ota, Shaun Shimoda and Fusako Shiotani.

“People who know ‘Kouhaku’ and have watched it for years will recognize every song and know every singer,” said Kashiwagi. “Hearing these songs again will bring back good memories from New Year’s past.”

The James Armstrong Theatre is located at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 3330 Civic Center Drive.  General admission tickets are $35. For reservations, leave a message on the Grateful Crane ticket line at (310) 995-5841, and you will receive a call back to confirm your order.

(on portraying Japanese and Japanese-American characters): “That’s the kind of thing you live for. Okay, you can play somebody in a great classic play and the audience members come up and they say, ‘Oh, my god! You were so good as Hamlet!’ or whatever. But for somebody to come up and say, ‘Oh, my god! You reminded me of my dad!’ ‘You were like my uncle!’ ‘Oh, god, I remember my mom did that!’ That’s really something.”

- Darrell Kunitomi, Grateful Crane Ensemble

Here’s an awesome 8-minute video about the Grateful Crane Ensemble, a theatrical/musical group that focuses on the stories and experiences of Japanese and Japanese-Americans. They will be presenting their Kohaku Uta Gassen/紅白歌合戦 tribute (which is equally hilarious and moving) at the Armstrong Theatre (Torrance, CA) on February 2nd!

I filmed their first presentation of this in Little Tokyo (clips from this are included in this video) and it was a really great time… funny skits and Kohaku nuances, entertaining performances, and some of their renditions of enka songs are gorgeous!

“In our ‘Nihonmachi’ show, one of the characters says: ‘To know where you are going, you must know where you came from.’ And so that’s really what we’re trying to do. By telling the stories, people will learn where they came from. They’ll know their history. They’ll know their story and so they’ll be able to relate it to their life now and realize that their life has a lot of meaning. There’s a lot of history behind who they are as Japanese-Americans. They just didn’t land here. There’s been a lot that’s happened before — a lot of people, a lot of history — and once they learn that, I think they could learn a sense of pride in being Japanese-American. They can gain a sense of strength in being who we are.”

- Soji Kashiwagi, Grateful Crane Ensemble

Here’s an awesome 8-minute video about the Grateful Crane Ensemble, a theatrical/musical group that focuses on the stories and experiences of Japanese and Japanese-Americans. They will be presenting their Kohaku Uta Gassen/紅白歌合戦 tribute (which is equally hilarious and moving) at the Armstrong Theatre (Torrance, CA) on February 2nd!

I filmed their first presentation of this in Little Tokyo (clips from this are included in this video) and it was a really great time… funny skits and Kohaku nuances, entertaining performances, and some of their renditions of enka songs are gorgeous!

Currently learning on ukulele:
上を向いて歩こう | “Ue o Muite Arukō”
(lit. translation: “I Look Up When I Walk”)
also known as “The Sukiyaki Song”
originally performed by Kyu Sakamoto (1961)

Here’s a gorgeous acoustic cover performed by Kina Grannis!

Click here for the lyrical translations and a little bit of background on the song! Growing up, I was forced to listen to enka music in my mom’s car and every year we would watch the Kōhaku Uta Gassen (紅白歌合戦) on Japanese television. I hated enka music back then, but I’ve grown to love it now.

It reminds me of both of my grandmothers (R.I.P.) <3