Karasuma Pyoco Sight-Reads a Miyazawa Kenji Story in Her First Reading Stream

.LIVE — Karasuma Pyoco of .LIVE read Miyazawa Kenji’s short story “The Restaurant of Many Orders” (Chumon no Ooi Ryoriten) aloud on a late-night stream, her first attempt at a reading broadcast. She had not practiced it beforehand, and the reading itself ran about 25 minutes.

She opened the stream by calling it an experimental run. She said she had recently learned that works whose copyright has expired can be streamed as readings, and that she wanted to show a more literary side. She studied literature at university, she said, but it was Korean national literature, so she had read little Japanese literature. She picked the story because it came up first in her search. If the format proved a poor fit, she said, there would be no more reading streams.

“I haven’t even tried reading it once as a test, so I’m going to read it cold, for the first time, right now.” — Karasuma Pyoco, before the reading began

Pyoco also told viewers that she had been drinking, saying she had had a fair amount, and the opening chat was full of jokes about it. She decided against another drink so her speech would not slur, then settled in to read.

When the reading ended, chat filled with applause. Pyoco said she had been so absorbed that she had not looked at the comments, and she thought her monthly voice-drama recordings may have helped. Super Chats from viewers praised her voice and delivery. Afterward she said the story went into her head more easily than she had expected, and that she might try a longer work.

She asked viewers to suggest pieces suited to a quiet late-night reading, and chat named several, including “The Nighthawk Star” (Yodaka no Hoshi) and “Swimmy”, which she wrote down. She said she would like to do readings now and then, possibly again without notice, and asked for feedback and requests.