souken (総見): literally, "group viewing"
An event held by fan clubs during which all of the members are encouraged to attend the same performance. In addition to sitting together in a designated block of seats, club members don their wear while watching to show support for their star. In all known cases, there is also an additional ticket fee (usually 500 yen) that members pay to receive a small gift commemorating the event. Sometimes tickets are distributed by lottery instead of individually assigned.
Troupes with several musumeyaku clubs have been known to hold musumeyaku souken. There is also a wide variety of other types depending on the story portrayed in the performance, as well as the camaraderie of clubs within a troupe. Two clubs may hold a souken if their stars play a married couple in a performance, or several clubs may have a collaborative souken for stars who constitute an easily-recognizable group within the story of a play.
For the convenience of the club members, souken is almost always held on a Saturday or Sunday.¹ However, in order to sell more tickets, clubs sometimes announce extra weekday souken.
In rare cases, clubs from different troupes — or current-star clubs and OG clubs — have been known to hold souken, usually to show support of a friend or douki.
(1) In Tokyo, where performances tend to sell out quickly on weekends, some larger clubs may hold their kumi-souken on weeknights, where the night performance begins after normal work hours are finished.
Related Links:
kai-touroku
kaiseki
wear
An event held by fan clubs during which all of the members are encouraged to attend the same performance. In addition to sitting together in a designated block of seats, club members don their wear while watching to show support for their star. In all known cases, there is also an additional ticket fee (usually 500 yen) that members pay to receive a small gift commemorating the event. Sometimes tickets are distributed by lottery instead of individually assigned.
- Kai-souken: A group viewing for all members of a single club.
- Kumi-souken: For each main theater performance run there is generally at least one performance chosen for members of all clubs within a troupe to attend together. Sometimes club daihyou / staff members hold an inter-club lottery to give away special prizes.
- Douki-souken: A group viewing for several clubs for stars of the same class year. (See douki.)
Troupes with several musumeyaku clubs have been known to hold musumeyaku souken. There is also a wide variety of other types depending on the story portrayed in the performance, as well as the camaraderie of clubs within a troupe. Two clubs may hold a souken if their stars play a married couple in a performance, or several clubs may have a collaborative souken for stars who constitute an easily-recognizable group within the story of a play.
For the convenience of the club members, souken is almost always held on a Saturday or Sunday.¹ However, in order to sell more tickets, clubs sometimes announce extra weekday souken.
In rare cases, clubs from different troupes — or current-star clubs and OG clubs — have been known to hold souken, usually to show support of a friend or douki.
(1) In Tokyo, where performances tend to sell out quickly on weekends, some larger clubs may hold their kumi-souken on weeknights, where the night performance begins after normal work hours are finished.
Related Links:
kai-touroku
kaiseki
wear