Hitori Gekidan

Hitori Gekidan (劇団ひとり, Gekidan Hitori, born 2 February 1977, in Hanamigawa-ku, Chiba, Chiba) is a Japanese comedian, lyricist, actor, novelist and film director. His real name is Shogo Kawashima (川島 省吾, Kawashima Shōgo).

He is mainly known his improvisational ability and for his style of physical comedy.

Gekidan is represented with Ohta Production. His wife is tarento Akane Osawa.

Kawashima's parents were employed by Japan Airlines (His father was a pilot, his mother was a flight attendant). Due to the nature of their occupation, Kawashima lived in Anchorage, Alaska for 3 years as a child from 2nd grade to 5th grade.

In 1992, while in his first year of high school, Kawashima appeared on the variety program "Tensai Takeshi no genki ga deru terebi!!" and garnered the attention of Ohta Productions to sign him as a comedy talent. He began activities in a kombi called "Suplex", but were relatively unsuccessful. Kawashima transferred and dropped out of high schools multiple times before graduating from Chiba Ritsufunabashi High School at the age of 20. He then went on to enroll in Tōhō Gakuen in Tokyo and specialized in broadcasting arts, graduating in 1999.

Kawashima's unit, "Suplex", disbanded in 2000 and Kawashima continued activities as a solo comedian with the name Gekidan Hitori, which literally translates to "One person troupe". After going solo, Gekidan became vastly more popular and successful in the industry with numerous appearances in various television and variety programs. He continued to flourish in the following years, even becoming active as an actor in TV dramas and movies.

Name

When "Suplex" disbanded, Kawashima needed a new name to continue activities as a solo comedian. Initially, he set up an internet voting poll with the top two names with the votes being "Katsu Curry" and "Namiuchi Giwa Tachio" which literally translates to "The Shoreline People". Both were rejected by Kawashima's manager, stating that he "sees no future" for these names in the industry to succeed. During a chat with fellow comedian and script writer Kazuhiro Yasuda, when Kawashima asked Yasuda who is his favorite actor, Yasuda responded with Robert De Niro, but with bad pronunciation, which to Kawashima sounded like "Rohata Deniro", which literally translates to "Niro from the Furnace", and sparked him to suggest the use of the name. This was, however, also rejected by his manager. Kawashima chose the name "Gekidan Hitori" in the end.

Gekidan Hitori is commonly referred to as Hitori or Kawashima by most others in the industry. Tamori, on the other hand, calls him Gekidan. His wife Akane Ozawa refers to him as "Shingo-tan"

Interests and Hobbies

• He is proficient with Rubik's Cubes, as he is able to solve a standard 3x3 cube in 42 seconds. On July 30, 2006, Kawashima entered the 2006 Tokyo Rubik's Cube Grand Prix and placed 68th out of 133 contestants.
• His favorite food is pizza. When asked what he last late on a TV program appearance, Kawashima said Domino's Pizza. Afterwards, he appeared as the face of a series of Domino's commercials in 2007 with their invitation.
• He is good friends with Going Under Ground, a Japanese alternative rock band. He also appeared in their music video for the single "Issho ni Kaerou" (いっしょに帰ろう) in 2009.
• He has publicly stated that he is a big fan of Christel Takigawa.
• As a student, Kawashima was a fan of Downtown, and purposefully imitated Hitoshi Matsumoto's hairstyle.

Video games

Stage

DVD

Music videos