Asakusa Kid, and the rudest word in the Japanese language

ADULT CONTENT WARNING: There aren’t any swear words in this article.

Last Saturday I watched the Netflix film, Asakusa Kid. If you have visited Tokyo, you have probably been to the historic Asakusa district.

Tour groups and tourists fill the narrow streets around the imposing, ferroconcrete Sensoji temple in the daytime. At night, it’s deserted and a magical place to wander around.

The film tells the story of the early days of legendary comedian and film director Takeshi Kitano, commonly known as Takeshi. If you don’t know him, his films are like Quentin Tarantino, and his comedy is like Tommy Cooper.

Takeshi wrote a song in the 1980’s called, Asukusa Kid about his time in Asakusa during the 1970s. The remarkable song begins with the unforgettable line: 煮込みしかないくじらやで NIKOMI SHIKA NAI KUJIRAYA DE (At a whale restaurant that’s only got stewed guts). The しか ない means ‘that’s all there is’.

NIKOMI refers to stewed guts, the kind of food you might not necessarily associate with Japan.

This whale restaurant called Kujira-Ya still exists in Asakusa. Takeshi was a regular. I went there once. I remember it just as it appears in the film.

But I should say whale is very rarely eaten in Japan.

The Americans encouraged the starving population to eat it after the war. For this reason there are still some Japanese around who grew up eating whale. Some of them go to Kujira-ya to remember their school meals.

The film focuses on Takeshi’s early career as a comedian in an Asakusa theatre. He starts out as an エレベーターボーイ EREBEETAA BOOI (Lift attendant).

He becomes a 弟子 DESHI (apprentice) to an established comedian, Senzaburo Fukami. The interaction between the 師匠 SHISHO (Master) Fukami, and the raw but talented and ambitious Takeshi is the best part of the film.

Fukami’s character, brilliantly acted by Yo Oizumi, teaches Takeshi to become a star.

The master Fukami is full of energy and wise-cracks. Entering the theatre one morning, he says to the lady in the ticket booth: 今日もきれいだね。KYOU MO KIREI DA NE (Looking beautiful as always today).

She replies bashfully: え、そう E, SOU (Oh, really?). He then shoots back: 掃除の話　SOUJI NO HANASHI　(I’m talking about how clean it is).

So, where’s the swearing? Well, there isn’t any. But the way the master Fukami speaks to the apprentice Takeshi is as close to swearing as you can get in Japanese.

What is striking is not what he says but how he says it. His sharp tone of voice indicates anger and at times affection and amusement.

A couple of Fukami’s words come up repeatedly.

One of them is バカやろう BAKAYAROU (Stupid idiot). The word itself might not seem that offensive, but in a culture where is common to address people with さん SAN (Mr/Mrs) or even さま SAMA (Sir/Madam) to show respect, this sudden drop down to an insult is striking.

The derogatory word for you, お前 O-MAE is also frequently used.

That Japanese has more than one word for you constantly confused me, until I realised the best word for you is the person’s name with -SAN added on the end.

Derogatory words like O-MAE can feel like hand-grenades. Using O-MAE towards someone can sound like directing an f-word at them.

The context is important. As a Japanese history teacher was fond of telling me, お前 O-MAE (you) used to be a polite form of address. It’s meaning has changed, and it’s meaning varies from a person.

While a 40 year old man might use it with an old school-friend, he probably wouldn’t dream of using it towards a client or stranger. Schoolboys use it to each other all the time

At other times, O-MAE can indicate affection. Fukami’s use of O-MAE towards his apprentice, Takeshi in the film demonstrates it’s dual use in showing both contempt and intimacy.

I treasure the few times I have been in a relationship with someone in Japan who I have felt able to lightly insult in this way. As with joking in English, it’s a difficult choice and I have made embarrassing mistakes.

The safest thing is never to use informal language. This is definitely a wise move with strangers, but only ever using formal language can prohibit more meaningful relationships developing.

In some relationships, insults can act as a bonding device. The more you insult someone, the more you might like them. And this is definitely true of the dynamic between Fukami and Takeshi. There is a warmth and affection in their interactions that make the film memorable.