Thank you to everyone who came to see my shows in Osaka on the 23rd and Kobe on the 25th. With that, I have now finished five performances from “Hikigatari Battari #2 at 8 cities!”
Now, I know this seems random, but this week I’m going to write about “abbreviations”. It appears that lately the newspapers and TV programs have been taken by the so-called “abbreviation storm”. “Dospe”, “Kaspe”, “Kurobara”, and “Utasuta” are among some of the shows that have been using abbreviated titles right from the first episode. Speaking of the time I became familiar with abbreviations, it was in the end of the 70’s when Tanokin Trio debuted. Toshihiko Tahara’s “Ta” + Yoshio Nomura’s “no” + Masahiko Kondo’s “kon”, presumably read as “kin”, were lumped together to make “Tanokin”. Two years before this Tanokin Trio became very popular, which was also during my first year of senior high school, someone (I wonder who), leaked out information about me and two other classmates smoking on school grounds, and as a result the three of us received suspension for a whole week. Later on, it would become common amusement for others to refer to us as “Happy Suspension Trio”, and then after that, “The Original Tanokin Trio”. Sometime later during the 80’s there was also a popular TBS drama about adultery called “Kinyoubi no Tsumatachi e” (For Wives on Fridays), which of course came to be abbreviated as “Kintsuma”. Although I never watched it properly, since I was approaching mid-twenties after all, I have a feeling that the mere sound of “Kintsuma” made a great impression on people.
In regards to music, the exemplary “abbreviations”, who also happen to be my mentors that I greatly respect, include: Chage & Aska → “Chageasu”, Stardust Revue → “Sutarebi”, and then, Mr.Children → “Misuchiru”. However, these abbreviations sound somewhat light to me, and neither do they correspond with the groups’ musicianship. Then again, I’ve never considered using abbreviations in whatever I say or write anyway. It’s only my opinion, but I think that for some of these other groups who recklessly adopt such informal names, like Skapara, Judymary, Hisuburu, Buriguri, and the latest, Ajikan (?), their other names do not sound as fun as the full ones. Well, if I were to look at it from another point of view, my intuition would tell me that when something is abbreviated, then “it’s a sign of it being recognized and supported by the masses.” With that in mind, no matter how hard you try, it’s very unlikely that you’ll be able to abbreviate my name KAN.
As long as various ideas keep popping up in my head, I’ll keep updating this “Friday Column” (Kinyoubi Koramu) every week. And as I keep putting a lot of effort into this hobby of mine, the number of you for whose weekly enjoyment it gets published will gradually increase. Then eventually it will become a popular topic of conversation at your workplaces and drinking parties, and after that when it reaches the point that you’ll refer to it by its abbreviation, I strongly hope that it’s more likely that it won’t be “Kinkora”, but rather whichever title that sounds good to you. Better yet, while I’m at it, I’d like to explain further why it had to be Friday in the first place. I didn’t actually take into account the fact that Fridays generally play a special role in the lives of Japanese people, nor does it have anything to do with it being my favorite day of the week. The real reason is simple: the day when this site was opened, May 20th, 2005, just happened to be Friday, and so I thought to myself, “hey, why don’t I update it every week on Fridays?” As such, if I were to properly abbreviate “Tamatama Kinyoubi no Column” (Accidental Friday Column), I’d go with “Tamakin Column”. What do you think? Doesn’t “Tamakin Column” sound perfect? Don’t you feel some kind of connection between it and “Tanokin Trio”?
…I know, this whole idea about this being abbreviated one day is a little farfetched. If it turns out that I was wrong, it’s not like I will admit it.
And now that I’ve exhausted this topic enough, I’ll just say that tomorrow and the day after that I’ll be performing in Tokyo. Please keep in mind the Shimabara Rebellion (1637).
※The correct answer to the quiz in No.005 is 3. Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!
2005/07/01