Rakugo

thumb|right|Rakugoka at Sanma Festival

is a form of Japanese verbal comedy, traditionally performed in yose theatres. The lone sits on a raised platform, a . Using only a and a as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical (or sometimes sentimental) 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.

Description

The speaker is in the middle of the stage, and their purpose is to stimulate the general hilarity with tone and limited, yet specific body gestures. The monologue always ends with a narrative stunt (punch line) known as or , 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 , the , the , and . 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.

Lexical background

The precursor of rakugo was called . 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 (落とし噺) were normally read as otoshibanashi ("dropping story").

In the middle of the Meiji period (1868–1912) the expression rakugo first started being used, and it came into common usage only in the Shōwa period (1926–1989).

History

thumb|Shinjuku suehirotei is a famous vaudeville theater in Tokyo which hosts rakugo events.

One of the predecessors of rakugo is considered to be a humorous story in setsuwa. The Konjaku Monogatarishū and the Uji Shūi Monogatari were setsuwa collections compiled from the Heian period (794–1185) to the Kamakura period (1185–1333); they contained many funny stories, and Japanese Buddhist monks preached Buddhism by quoting them. In Makura no Sōshi, it is described that the monks had gained a reputation for their beautiful voices and narrative arts.

The direct ancestor of rakugo is a humorous story among the stories narrated by otogishū in the Sengoku Period (1467–1615) . Otogishū were scholars, Buddhist monks and tea masters who served daimyo (feudal lord), and their duty was to give lectures on books to daimyo and to be a partner for chatting. Anrakuan Sakuden, who was an otogishū and a monk of the Jōdo-shū, is often said to be the originator of rakugo, and his 8 volumes of Seisui Sho contain 1000 stories, including the original stories of rakugo.

In 1786, Utei Emba presided over a rakugo show at a ryōtei, a traditional Japanese catering venue, in Mukōjima. He is regarded as the father of the restoration of rakugo. His performances led to the establishment of the first theater dedicated to rakugo (yose) by Sanshōtei Karaku and Sanyūtei Enshō, and the revival of rakugo. His works are included in the Karukuchi tsuyu ga hanashi (Jocular Tsuyu's Stories, date of composition unknown), 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 (One-liners: An Important Storyteller, date of publication unknown) 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 IX. Furthermore, many people regarded as more mainstream comedians originally trained as rakugoka apprentices, even adopting stage names given to 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.

English Rakugo performances have been studied for how they convey traditional Japanese cultural values through adapted scripts, making the art form more accessible while preserving its original narrative style.

Titles and repertoire

Rakugo stories are generally divided into two categories: classical repertoire stories (koten rakugo, 古典落語) and original stories (shinsaku rakugo, 新作落語). Koten rakugo consists of traditional tales that, in principle, can be adapted and performed by any storyteller. In contrast, shinsaku rakugo refers to new, original works created by individual performers. As the copyright holders, these performers must grant permission before their stories can be performed by others. While some classical repertoire stories are attributed to specific authors, these authors have often been deceased for a considerable time, allowing the stories to enter the shared repertoire.

Notable examples of classical repertoire stories include:

– a kaidanbanashi, or ghost story
– the life of a boy with a ridiculously long name
– a group of boys try to scare off a boaster
– a naive lord enjoys commoners' foods
– a meta-gag in which a father is mocked by his son because of his bad storytelling of the Japanese folktale Momotarō
– a tree begins growing out of a man's head
– a man tries to outwit the owner of a piece of antique porcelain
– a good-for-nothing husband finds a huge sum of money
– cash reward to whom that could identify a strange fish

Notable rakugoka

Edo (Tokyo)

Kamigata (Osaka and Kyoto)

References

External links

Rakugo video (in English) SFGTV San Francisco
Short newspaper essay on differences between Kamigata (Osaka) and Edo (Tokyo) rakugo
Learning Japanese Language and Culture through Rakugo Appreciation
The Conversation article about rakugo and gender