Who Is Jibuta Jibuemon?
A scatterbrained samurai who forgets his message
Jibuta Jibuemon is the hero of the classic rakugo tale Sokotsu no Shisha ("The Scatterbrained Messenger"), a rough-mannered but loyal samurai serving a daimyo family. He is skilled in martial arts but known as a terrible scatterbrain.
In Episode 10, he is sent as his lord's messenger to another mansion but completely forgets the formal message (kojo) he was supposed to deliver. He confesses, "Since I was a child, I remember things if someone pinches my backside," and has the receiving retainer pinch him, but it doesn't work. At last, Tome the carpenter pinches him with a nail puller, and he finally remembers, then proudly announces the punchline: "I came here without hearing the message!" He had never been told it in the first place.
