On August 2nd, the heatwave returned.

After my usual visits to Kanda Shrine and Yushima Tenjin Shrine, I went to "Asakusa Roku-ku."

It's about a 50-minute walk from my house.

The "Asakusa Roku-ku" mentioned here is the old name for the downtown area east of Sensoji Temple.

I stopped by after shopping at Asakusa ROX.

Every time I come to Asakusa, I wonder if I'm in Tokyo.

What is this air, or rather, this sticky feeling on my skin?

It feels like a different space where various times and places in Japan coexist, like Osaka in Tokyo.

Present and Past, Asakusa Roku-ku, Different Space

France-za, Eroticism and Manzai, Showa Record

"Asakusa Roku-ku." I looked it up on Wikipedia. Here's the gist.

"The entertainment district around Sensoji Temple dates back to the Genroku period, and eventually developed into the largest in Edo.

In the Meiji period, in March 1873, the area around Sensoji Temple was named "Asakusa Park" with the aim of creating an urban park, and an entertainment district was formed.

In 1884, the park land was divided into six districts by Tokyo Prefecture, and the entertainment district became "Asakusa Park District 6."

The Ryounkaku, built in 1890, was a high-rise building commonly known as "Asakusa Twelve Stories," and became a tourist attraction,

but it collapsed in the Great Kanto Earthquake on September 1, 1923.

The area burned down in the Great Tokyo Air Raid in 1945, but was rebuilt immediately after the war and became a major hub and hall of fame for the performing arts.

It reached its peak in the late 1950s, but with the advent of television and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics,

as youth culture began to emerge in areas such as Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Ikebukuro, foot traffic dropped sharply,

and many facilities that no longer suited the tastes of the younger generation closed,

and one after another, show theaters, which numbered 10 in 1954, closed, leaving only Rock-za, Casino-za, and Asakusa-za.

In an effort to halt the decline of the sixth district, local groups such as the Asakusa Okama-san Kai began to support it,

but in 2012, the last five movie theaters in Asakusa-roku-ku closed one after another.

In recent years, there have been many foreign tourists, and many hotels and souvenir shops for tourists have been seen.

In September 2019, it was designated a special district, and efforts have begun to attract festivals from all over the country on weekends.

Asakusa-roku-ku was once Tokyo's largest entertainment district and the center of entertainment.

For example, this is what Asakusa Roku-ku looked like in 1937, before the Pacific War.

But now, on August 2, 2023, this is what it looks like.

All the facilities put up flags and colorful billboards,

and if they do a lot of social media advertising that is unique to this day,

wouldn't it be possible to get closer to the lively atmosphere of the prewar period...

Right now, the only theaters that can be confirmed on this street are...

First, Asakusa Engei Hall.

Today, it seems that San'yutei Koyo and Shunputei Shota, members of the comedy duo Shoten, will also be performing.

The ticket price is 3,000 yen. It may be a cheap price for a story performed by such masters.

In the same building, the France-za Toyokan is located.

Rakugo is performed at the Engei Hall, and iromono and manzai are performed at the France-za Toyokan.

In the first place, iromono seems to have been positioned as a kind of accompanying art to rakugo.

Apparently, strip shows used to be the main event here, and manzai was performed in between.

Personally, it brings back memories of the excitement I felt when I went to Shinjuku OS Theater 45 years ago when I first came to Tokyo.

I looked it up online and found that

Atsumi Kiyoshi, Yuri Toru, Azuma Hachiro, and even Beat Takeshi all got their start here.

Then there's Rock-za, a strip theater.

Strip clubs can now be considered cultural heritage.

Today, I'll just report on the current state of Asakusa Roku-ku, even though I'm in Asakusa.

It's hot...

Asakusa has many faces.

From now on, I intend to dwell on its remaining faces.