午夜剧场

In April of this year, an anime titled "Ya Boy Kongming!" (Paripi Komei) aired on television and became a bit of a hot topic. Based on the manga of the same name, the story features a bizarre premise: after Zhuge Kongming dies at the Battle of Wuzhang Plains, he is somehow reincarnated in modern-day Shibuya. There, he is moved by the singing voice of the protagonist, Eiko Tsukimi, and begins serving her as his new lord. While the main focus of the story is Eiko's growth as a singer and Kongming's skill as her strategist (producer)—making it enjoyable even for those unfamiliar with the Three Kingdoms—the work is peppered with Three Kingdoms references, from Kongming's strategies and dialogue to the names of the characters. It is undoubtedly even more entertaining for fans of the original history.

Countless parodies of the Three Kingdoms exist beyond "Ya Boy Kongming!," but Japanese people taking liberties with the story is not limited to the modern era. It seems that people in the Edo period also fully enjoyed playing within the world of the Three Kingdoms.

For example, there is a work titled "Sangokushi" (written with characters meaning "History of Three Praises") published during the Kansei era (1789–1801) as a sharebon. Sharebon is a genre of literature focused on the pleasure quarters that was popular in Edo. In this work, Liu Bei has retired and left the state of Shu to Kongming, and is visited by Sun Quan and Cao Cao. Although the setting is technically Three Kingdoms-era China, their conversation revolves around "refined" topics typical of sharebon, such as the calligraphy, paintings, and sweets popular in Edo, which is quite humorous. There are plenty of topics related to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," such as asking, "Is it true that Kongming prayed for that wind (at the Battle of Red Cliffs)?" but in true sharebon fashion, most are reworked into comical episodes. However, the work also includes sophisticated jokes that one wouldn't understand without having read the original deeply, as well as meta-commentary like "No one is as favored as Liu Bei," suggesting that the readership included quite a few Three Kingdoms enthusiasts.

In "Sangokushi," Liu Bei speaks in an Edo dialect, using phrases like "Omoshiro tanuki no haratsuzumi" (the amusing belly-drumming of a raccoon dog), which is fundamentally no different in its parodic spirit from Kongming's line "It's party time!!" in "Ya Boy Kongming!" If a person from Edo who read "Sangokushi" were reincarnated in the present day, they could surely spend the whole night talking about the Three Kingdoms and would likely get excited watching "Ya Boy Kongming!" together. It wouldn't be surprising if a work with such a premise appeared someday. I cannot help but feel once again the sheer depth and versatility of the Three Kingdoms as a cultural phenomenon.