(Voice actor) Ms.Carolyn Miller

In the Major League in the US, there is a tradition to prank the rookies as a rite of passage. This is an annual event called rookie hazing and many Japanese major leaguers experienced this as well. One day, a rookie’s baggage is cleared from his locker and bizarre costumes are prepared instead. The targeted rookie player must wear the costume back to his home or hotel. Ex-Yankees Hideki Matsui’s costume was a leopard-print attire and a pair of sunglasses, and Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima, both former Redsox players, had to travel with a full-body suit of a popular character and a pirate costume, respectively. It seems there are rookie hazings in any world. It was no different in the Ooku (inner palace) of Edo castle. Ooku was a private space made by the wives of the Tokugawa shogun clan. In addition to the shogun’s wives, female servants were in charge of taking care of the wives and clerical duties. It was space that men were prohibited from entering, other than the shogun and his sons. There, pranks and harassments equivalent to rookie hazing was done to new female servants. For the newcomers, Ooku was a very strict place and they spent every day under intense pressure. It is said that they would get a warning if their movements, even every day actions such as the use of chopsticks, were not up to standard. They would be exhausted until they got used to it. What they looked forward to, was the simultaneous break that those who worked in Ooku could take. This was the only day that they were allowed to go out of the Ooku in the Edo castle. It was a day that one could stroll the town of Edo, go back to one’s family, or anything else they please. The senior female servants would kindly prepare souvenirs for the new female servants who are eagerly awaiting that day. What is the prank played on the female servants? Is it the same in any country or any era that rookies become stronger by going through initiations like this?