So in this story we are taken backstage into the world of 黒子の黒子
I confess that I am very perplexed by the significance of the very dingy sounding Shiatsu head massage place. Obviously our narrator enjoys it, but is there a deeper meaning or connection? Perhaps the second half of the story will make clear.
Connections There was a fleeting reference to the 着至板 in the previous chapter (did anyone else spot it?) - interesting to see it play a much bigger role here. I wondered vaguely whether the female actress who plays the dying-in-every-show part of Kim in Miss Saigon is the same person as our mysterious old woman in the previous story. But it seems unlikely.
A couple of things that I found helpful.
(Both of these are real elements of the backstage world of the Imperial theatre)
If anyone is interested (I haven’t managed to read much of it) - there is an interview here between Ogawa and Masachika Ishimura (an actor who performed in Miss Saigon for 30 years)
it includes a reference to the Inari shrine
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