Now that we are 100 years old, "learning" is becoming more important in order to enrich our lives in many ways.Tokyo Metropolitan University operates an open university to contribute to the realization of a lifelong active city.Aiming to be a base for lifelong learning that meets the learning needs of citizens of Tokyo and working adults, we have established courses to widely return the results of university academic research to society.Approximately 360 courses that respond to the intellectual curiosity of many people, such as the history of Edo and Tokyo, health, economy, science, culture, and languages, are offered. A total of about 6,000 people learn during the day, at night, and on Saturdays, with a learning style that allows them to learn only when they want to learn.

Unique genre "Edo / TOKYO" course that can only be learned at Tokyo Metropolitan University

　Among the wide range of open university courses, the focus is on the unique "Edo / TOKYO" genre that is unique to a university that bears "Tokyo".Among them, the lecture "Edo / Tokyo walking with rakugo" is especially popular.The instructor is Sunshi Tatekawa, who belongs to the Rakugo Tatekawa style and is the second under the gate of Danshiro Tatekawa.In fact, he is a graduate of Tokyo Metropolitan University.When I was a student, I majored in early modern Japanese history and belonged to a rakugo study group.The lecture, in which Mr. Soshi is the instructor, is easy to understand because you can listen to the storyteller's high seat by introducing the illustration materials of the time such as cut-out drawings and ukiyo-e and polite commentary on the life and culture of the Edo period, which is the background of rakugo. There are also many repeat students.This time, we talked to Sunshi Tatekawa about such a rakugo course.
 

 

Rakugo course like a little variety show that understands the background of the times

　When the instructor first asked, Mr. Soshi said, "I was happy."
I became addicted to rakugo because I became interested in the illustrations of the rakugo books I read when I was a child.When he was a junior high school student, he went to a yose by himself.The turning point was 44 years old, working as an editor, but he became a disciple of Master Tatekawa Danshiro.

　As a matter of course, rakugo is a hobby, so when I graduated from university, I got a job without any trouble.The president of the editorial production and small publishing company who was working had a good time with Master Danshiro, and became the editor in charge if he liked rakugo.After that, when I saw the retirement age as an office worker and thought about my future life, I was not interested in myself at all, and at that time I learned that Master Danshiro took a 47-year-old disciple, and I became a disciple. He set out on the path to becoming a rakugoka, saying that he would not be refused by his age.

　"I thought that the rakugo and Japanese history I learned in college were just my hobbies, so I didn't think about connecting them directly. But when I heard the lecturer, I thought it would be an interesting task. In particular, I liked the cut-out map, so I wondered if I could do something with the cut-out map that was actually the stage of the rakugo story. I thought it would be interesting if it was such a story, and I came up with the idea that this story could be done like this. I was originally an editor, so it's funny to arrange various stories in a good way. It's similar to making a special feature in a magazine, and you may be accustomed to it. I hope you enjoy it as if you were watching a little variety, if not a liberal arts program. "
 

 
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