Rakugo


Rakugo is a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller sits on a raised platform, a kōza. Using only a paper fan and a small cloth as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters. The difference between the characters is depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head.

Lexical background

Rakugo was originally known as karukuchi. The oldest appearance of the kanji which refers specifically to this type of performance dates back to 1787, but at the time the characters themselves were normally read as otoshibanashi.
In the middle of the Meiji period the expression rakugo first started being used, and it came into common usage only in the Shōwa period.

Description

The speaker is in the middle of the audience, and his purpose is to stimulate the general hilarity with tone and limited, yet specific body gestures. The monologue always ends with a narrative stunt known as ochi or sage, consisting of a sudden interruption of the wordplay flow. Twelve kinds of ochi are codified and recognized, with more complex variations having evolved through time from the more basic forms.
Early rakugo has developed into various styles, including the shibaibanashi, the ongyokubanashi, the kaidanbanashi, and ninjōbanashi. In many of these forms the ochi, which is essential to the original rakugo, is absent.
Rakugo has been described as "a sitcom with one person playing all the parts" by Noriko Watanabe, assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature at Baruch College.

History

Rakugo was invented by Buddhist monks in the ninth and tenth centuries to make their sermons more interesting and its written tradition can be traced back to the story collection Uji Shūi Monogatari.
Gradually the form turned from humorous narrative into monologue, probably upon the request of the daimyōs, seeking people skilled enough to entertain them with various kinds of storytelling.
During the Edo period, thanks to the emergence of the merchant class of the chōnin, the rakugo spread to the lower classes. Many groups of performers were formed, and collections of texts were finally printed. During the 17th century the actors were known as hanashika, corresponding to the modern term, rakugoka.
Before the advent of modern rakugo there were the kobanashi: short comical vignettes ending with an ochi, popular between the 17th and the 19th century. These were enacted in small public venues, or in the streets, and printed and sold as pamphlets. The origin of kobanashi is to be found in the Kinō wa kyō no monogatari, the work of an unknown author collecting approximately 230 stories describing the common class.

Important contributors

Many artists contributed to the development of rakugo. Some were simply performers, but many also composed original works.
Among the more famous rakugoka of the Tokugawa period were performers like Anrakuan Sakuden, the author of the Seisuishō, a collection of more than 1,000 stories. In Edo there also lived who wrote the Shikano Buzaemon kudenbanashi and the Shika no makifude, a work containing 39 stories, eleven of which are about the kabuki milieu. was author of the Rakugo rokugi.
Kyoto was the home of , who is considered the father of the rakugo tradition of the Kamigata area. His works are included in the Karukuchi tsuyu ga hanashi, containing many word games, episodes from the lives of famous literary authors, and plays on the different dialects from the Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto areas.
Of a similar structure is the Karukuchi gozen otoko in which are collected the stories of, who lived in Ōsaka towards the end of the 17th century. An example from Yonezawa Hikohachi's collection:
For the poor man is already dead. The joke becomes clearer when one notes that a Japanese traditional bathing tub is shaped like a coffin.

Current performers

Current rakugo artists include Tachibanaya Enzō, Katsura Bunshi VI, Tachibanaya Takezō II, Tatekawa Shinosuke and Hayashiya Shōzō. Furthermore, many people regarded as more mainstream comedians originally trained as rakugoka apprentices, even adopting stage names given them by their masters. Some examples include Akashiya Sanma, Shōfukutei Tsurube II, and Shōfukutei Shōhei. Another famous rakugo performer, Shijaku Katsura II, was known outside Japan for his performances of rakugo in English.

Titles

Edo (Tokyo)