Tatekawa Danshi VII & Shoten Group -- Shoten Ondo（笑点音頭）

 

Last night, for the first time in a long while, my family watched the venerable rakugo-ka variety series, NTV's "Shoten"（笑点...Laughing Points）, on Jme. And as it turned out, it was the penultimate episode (from earlier this spring) of one of the longest-serving Japanese comic storytellers, Kikuo Hayashiya（林家木久扇）in the bright yellow garb. He had been on the show since 1969 so it was basically a 55-year run for him. I'm hoping that he's enjoying his retirement.

Considering that "Shoten" has been around since 1966, change has been an inevitable part of the program including change in the comedians on the zabuton over the decades. That was also the case with the theme song for "Shoten". The current comical theme song penned by Hachidai Nakamura（中村八大） has been around for so long (since around Hayashiya's arrival on the show) that people can be forgiven if they thought that it has been the only theme.

But such was not the case. For the first several months of "Shoten", there was apparently no theme and I gather that the show went straight into the hijinks without any music, but then from January 1967, the first theme song made its appearance known as this jaunty and jazzy minyo-style song done to an orchestra. Known as "Shoten Ondo" (The Laughing Points Song), it was recorded by the original group of rakugo-ka known as the Shoten Group（笑点グループ）with the lead vocalist being the first host himself, Tatekawa Danshi VII（立川談志）. The lyrics were provided by Tatekawa with the melody composed by Naoshi Miyazaki（宮崎尚志）. "Shoten Ondo" would last for almost three years before the more familiar theme song replaced it in late 1969 with the departure of Tatekawa from "Shoten".