When Professor Naoto Hayashi and Lecturer Kazuhiro Motsuka of the Tokyo Institute of Technology Liberal Arts Research and Education Institute analyzed the lifespans of 1700 men born after 566 who engaged in traditional Japanese performing arts, the lifespans of traditional performing arts tended to be long. However, it turned out that only Kabuki actors were exceptionally short.
According to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Professor Hayashi et al. Aggregated the birth and death years of 18 men who engaged in Kabuki, tea ceremony, rakugo, nagauta, and Noh since the 566th century from sources such as the web and books, and committed suicide. Lifespan was analyzed excluding deaths from war, deaths from accidents, and deaths from accidents.We also analyzed and compared the data of 133 men from the Emperor and Shogun Tokugawa who lived in the same era.
As a result, the median lifespan of all traditional performing arts was about 15 years longer than that of the Emperor and Shogun families, but when limited to those born after 1901, Kabuki actors are other traditional performing arts. It became clear that the life span was shorter than that of performing arts.
Kabuki actors and Noh performers have long-term performances and high-intensity exercises.Professor Hayashi and his colleagues made a hypothesis that it might lead to longevity and analyzed it, but the result was that the hypothesis was wrong.
Professor Hayashi and his colleagues believe that activities such as playing musical instruments, vocalizations, and utterances that are carried out in traditional performing arts other than Kabuki may have given favorable results to longevity, and future research will be conducted on purposes other than exercise in traditional performing arts. It is necessary to consider the impact of the activities on health and longevity.
Paper information:[Palgrave Communications] The influence of occupation on the longevity of Japanese traditional artists
