Katsura Futaba's "Tetsuko's Room" broadcast on August 28th: Shofukutei Tsurube says, "She was a bit my type"

Rakugo performer Katsura Niyo appeared on Kuroyanagi Tetsuko's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on August 28th. He talked about meeting and interacting with Shofutei Tsurube, who inspired him to become a rakugo performer, and how Tsurube encouraged him to become a disciple of Master Katsura Yoneji.

As a child, he grew up without watching much TV. When he was a university student, he happened to see Tsurube on TV and said, "I thought he was a wonderful person. I looked him up and found out he was a rakugo performer. I thought I should go see him, and that's how I got to know rakugo." He said, "When I was a university student, he was kind of my type," and added, "He was funny and not arrogant. There are a lot of arrogant old men, aren't there? But Master Tsurube wasn't like that, he was very cute and I thought he was a wonderful person."

He also used to follow Tsurube-san around. "I would wait outside the show, and when I say following him, I mean watching from behind a pillar and hardly saying a word, but I would follow him and Master Tsurube would say, 'You're welcome,' and take me out to dinner and ask me if I wanted to come to a rakugo press conference, and so I got to see a lot of rakugo," he revealed.

She then became an apprentice to Master Katsura Yoneji. She chose Master Yoneji because "I thought he would take good care of me." She was rejected twice, citing the difficulty of training a female Rakugo performer. The third time, she said, "Well, he said, 'Well, I guess I'll at least listen to what you have to say.'" She continued, "I think he was quite worried about whether to take me on as an apprentice, but he was a big fan of Master Tsurube, so he told my master about it, and he called Master Tsurube and said, 'Here's someone who's come, what should we do?' Master Tsurube replied, 'I'd love to take him on,' and with his support, I was able to enroll him."