A recollection of Okada Masaki’s 30th birthday
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| Okada Masaki in front of birthday wishes from his fans (source: Toho Stage). Mine is circled with two hearts... |
I’m back in my home in Australia now, but I still carry Tokyo within my heart. Specifically, I still carry Ginza in my heart. The Ginza where Okada Masaki celebrated his 30th birthday with us, his fans. Thus, this post, a reminiscence, if you will, of the beautiful day and night where we celebrated Masaki’s birthday with him.
I still remember that night; a humid clear sky with strong wind. Just like tonight, the moon was very visible that night, patiently accompanying us as we fans lined up outside the Theatre Creation back stage door to see Okada Masaki. To wish him happy birthday.
I didn’t realise until later, but it was full moon during Masaki’s birthday. A beautiful full moon that I was so lucky to witness in the midst of Tokyo, of all cities. The moon was still there, smiling, as Masaki came out of the stage door after we waited for almost 40 min or so.
Everyone was excited, and I again saw his sprout of curly hair, his grey-blue glasses, his super thin moustache, and his grey-white shirt. I saw Okada Masaki for a few seconds as he smiled and waved. Together with many other fans, we wished him a happy birthday, some louder than others. He smiled again and nodded; his curly hair swished around his face as he did so.
(Edit 26 Aug'19: He actually wore a charcoal-grey shirt that night, framing his deliciously lean body. See below and this link too:)
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| Masaki greeted-back his fans on 15 August after the soiree (Source) |
Then, just like that, he entered his car and left.
Then suddenly there was a void in my heart. Even the moon above couldn’t fill up the void.
How could a person leave such a void in my heart, I know not. I suppose it’s because I – like many other fans – love him and long to chat with him, even just for five minutes. But it’s more like 5 seconds that we had, and that’s all we had. Perhaps that was what caused the void….
(now I understand why my friend from Osaka cried when she couldn’t give him her letter. I totally get it now…)
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| I love your glasses (and you...)(source) |
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| Also looking at the other side (I was waaaay at the back end of that line)(source) |
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| And then he entered his car (with birthday presents inside the car) and left, leaving me bereft of his presence... (source) |
Anyway. Then Benio-san and I went to a nearby gyoza izakaya and talked for over an hour about Bracken Moor and about Masaki in general. Slowly, the void was filled again with our love for him. During dinner, I asked Benio-san a question which I asked Wisteria-san, Nagagutsu-san and another friend who is not Twitter-active (hence I cannot disclose her name) a few hours beforehand.
Why do we – more mature women – love Masaki? I have done several fans greetings now and I see that Masaki has a lot of mature women as his fans. Women over 35 years old who would otherwise care less about younger actors.
Why do we love Okada Masaki?
And the answer came just like that; the same type of answers across these women.
Because Okada Masaki is a kind soul. He is kind and warm, and he has such a good working ethic. Because he is a patient person. Because he is thoughtful, as can be read from his responses in his interviews.
Of course we like him because he’s cute as well. But I think we love him because of who he is. Because – amidst all the troubles that we have around us, amidst the escalating conflicts in many places – Okada Masaki’s smile brings hope and healing into our hearts. His entire being brings warmth into our hearts.
That’s why we love him. That’s why we lined up to see him, even just for a few seconds.
Masaki is not perfect. He smokes, for one, and I want him to stop smoking because it’s bad for his health. And although it’s not a defect, Masaki safeguards his privacy so much that sometimes I wish to tell him that some of us want to know just a bit more about him because we care for him, not because we want to poke around his life…
For instance, after he enters the car, he doesn’t often open the windows to wave at us fans. I suppose that’s his privacy, that he just wants to be in his me time after the theatre. But, yes, I admit I want him to lower the window and wave at us, just as he did in Bunkamura last June when I was lucky enough to see him. But he didn’t lower the window this time (nor the night of 16 August). I do think he waved at us, although it was difficult to see from behind the filtered glasses (I am certain though that he did wave at us on 16th August for I saw his hand waving behind the window; it’s just again difficult to see behind the tinted window).
Also I need to admit that sometimes I do wish that he knew I flew all the way from Australia just to get a glimpse of him. He didn’t owe me anything of course, because it was my decision to come, and it will always be my own to make. But sometimes, I wish I could just converse with him, even just for 5 minutes, how I’ve followed his career so far, and how I wish him well (and for God sake, please stop smoking…).
But aside from that… I still marvel at the journey of this young man. He is much younger than me, but he teaches me a lot. One of the reasons for my translating his interviews, in addition to improve my Japanese, is because I learn a lot from him. I learn about work ethics from him (e.g., he tried to learn everything he can from Rakugo masters for his Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū). I learn about priorities from him (e.g., with apologies, he didn’t come to an award ceremony because he chose to concentrate on Hamlet). I learn about humbleness from him (e.g., he asked Ninagawa Yuki-san whether it was truly okay to accept the role of Hamlet). I learn about gratitude from him (e.g., he also visited Ninagawa-san’s grave the morning of the first Hamlet show). I learn to challenge myself from him (e.g., Masaki does not shy away from difficult roles; he embraces them). I learn about honesty and perseverance from him (e.g., Masaki admits he always faced walls in his roles, but he persevered in overcoming those walls). At the same time, I learn to accept who I am – also from him (e.g., Masaki knows he’s the skinny-type of person, and he’s accepting who he is, just the way he is).
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| Even Muro-san quoted Masaki on his shirt! ("Each time, there's always a wall. But I always try to climb over it") |
That was what I talked about with Benio-san and, earlier, with Wisteria-san. About how this young man stole our hearts because of the purity of his heart and his courage. It of course doesn’t help that Benio and I giggled every time we saw new photos of Masaki that night… I do feel like a school girl every time I fan-girl Masaki, but…しかたない、it can’t be helped!
Then, as Benio and I finished our dinner… our izakaya played this song. “Hanamizuki” by Yō Hitoto (translation modified from this site). Although the song was written for a movie of the same name starring Aragaki Yui and Ikuta Toma (Masaki’s senpai), that night I felt the song resonated a lot with my feelings. Particularly these lines:
夏は暑過ぎて
Natsu wa atsusugite
The summer is very hot
僕から気持ちは重すぎて
Boku kara kimochi wa omosugite
and my feelings are very intense
Yes, it was a very humid summer night when I pondered our deep love of this young man Okada Masaki…
And then… the last bit of the song:
薄紅色の可愛い君のね
Usubeni iro no kawaii kimi no ne
Your light crimson blushing is so cute
君と好きな人が百年続きますように
Kimi to suki na hito ga hyakunen tsudzukimasu yō ni
I hope you and your beloved will last for 100 years.
Yes, I do hope that this year Okada Masaki – he whose ears and face blush pink red every time he is embarrassed – will find his true love, and that their love will continue for 100 years… That is one of his wishes for this year, and I hope he’ll have it.
As for me, I do hope that one day he will read my blog and blogposts. Or, not even the blog. Would he read the post-it birthday message I wrote for him for his birthday?...
(Or would he one day find this MV I made just for his birthday?)
I do hope that one day he will know how much I admire him as a fan.
But most importantly, I hope Masaki will always be healthy, happy, and fulfilled. That he lives his life to the fullest. Just as he gives me hope, I hope he will get what he hopes for; that he will get his dreams.
Thus, happy birthday once again, Masaki. Thank you for the Light within you. Be healthy, happy and live your life the fullest.
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| Masaki and the Bracken Moor crew, celebrating his birthday... (source: Toho Stage) |
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| And look at the cool jacket his BM team gave him! (Toho Stage) |
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| ... and the final, final birthday message board, which means the one he took photo with wasn't the final version (Toho Stage) |
Twitter account @seigakan (the owner is a close friend of Ninagawa Yukio-san and s/he knows Masaki well) said that Masaki would definitely read all the birthday messages, and that is why Masaki is loved.
— のぐち和美(青蛾館)／毛皮のマリー (@seigakan) August 15, 2019
The birthday board.
Make no mistake; he will read all those messages.
That is why he is loved.
~ @seigakan
By the way, of the precious four times I saw Masaki during the fan-greeting this year, he always had those grey-blue glasses while his hair was always the curly prince-ly hair.
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| ...like this look, taken in Shibuya on 19 May 2019... |
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| Or this one... when he, Aoyagi Shō (Laertes) and Kuroki Haru (Ophelia) hanged out with the Hamlet cast after a Hamlet show in late May...(source) |
I actually love that look so much that I hope that look stays for a long bit. If he does want to grow his hair longer and eventually tie it into a man bun, I also support it, though I still prefer his current hair style he has retained since Hamlet. Because this hairstyle frames his face in the right balance, it makes him so princely and stately, a hairstyle that suits him the most, IMO…
