Uirou-Uri’s Line

 

The most famous line in English theater might be “To be or not to be,” from Hamlet by Shakespeare. The most famous line in Japanese kabuki theater might be the line of uirou-uri from uirou-uri.

This line is famous because of its difficulty to recite. Most of the lines of uirou-uri are tongue twisters. So actors and announcers who are required to speak to their audiences recite this line for practice. Some of them memorize all the lines. Saying all the lines might take about six minutes.

I also studied this line when I was a high school student. I was a member of the drama club. Actually, I assumed the line was just a combination of tongue twisters, but this is not true. uirou-uri is one of the best eighteen stories in Kabuki theater. It has a full story, which I only recently learned.

The famous line is a speech by a medicine salesman. He explains that he is selling a wonderful kind of medicine, named uirou. He says that the medicine heals all kinds of illnesses—a cure-all. Furthermore, it has a side effect. If you take this medicine, you can recite any tongue twister easily. Then through a product demonstration, the salesman takes the medicine and recites several tongue twisters.

A half-witted samurai watches this demonstration and believes the salesman. He buys the medicine and takes it, but the samurai can’t recite the tongue twisters. He flubs the line many times. There is no such side effect from the medicine. The salesman simply practiced saying the tongue twisters many times. This is the comedy aspect of the show.

The salesman is actually a samurai. His father was also killed by a samurai. To avenge his father’s death and to determine the enemy’s identity, he disguised himself as a salesman and traveled for long time. Then he eventually finds his enemy. This is the story of uirou-uri.

Uirou-uri and Hamlet are both about sons avenging their fathers’ deaths. The most famous theater lines in the West and in the East are similar in this sense.

Interestingly, the medicine uirou really exists, even now, but we can’t buy it online or even in any drugstores in my town. Just one shop in Odawara City sells it, face-to-face. It is said that the shop has over five hundred years of history. They said that they have never sold their medicines via product demonstrations such as that in uirou-uri.

So it is a little complicated. uirou is an actual medicine, but the uirou salesman is a fictional job.

Wait! What are you doing? Are you still reading this document? I uploaded a video of myself reciting Uirou-Uri’s line. Please enjoy my attempt at saying a tongue twister.

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Picture by cocoanco