is a form of '' yose'', which is itself a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. 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.

Lexical background

Rakugo was originally known as . The oldest appearance of the

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

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'' (falling discourse). In the middle of the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

(1868–1912) the expression ''rakugo'' first started being used, and it came into common usage only in the

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

(1926–1989).

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 ( 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 kaidanbanashi (see ), and . In many of these forms the ''ochi'', which is essential to the original rakugo, is absent. Rakugo has been described as "a

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

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

One of the predecessors of rakugo is considered to be a humorous story in ''

setsuwa Setsuwa (, ja, 説話, setsu wa) is an East Asian literary genre. It consists of myths, legends, folktales, and anecdotes. ''Setsuwa'' means "spoken story". As one of the vaguest forms of literature, setsuwa is believed to have been passed dow ...

''. The ''

Konjaku Monogatarishū , also known as the , is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian period (794–1185). The entire collection was originally contained in 31 volumes, of which 28 remain today. The volumes cover various tales fr ...

'' and the '' Uji Shūi Monogatari'' were ''setsuwa'' collections compiled from the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...

(794–1185) to the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle b ...

(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.落語の歴史.
Japan Arts Counsil. The direct ancestor of rakugo is a humorous story among the stories narrated by ''otogishū'' in the

Sengoku Period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

(1467–1615) . ''Otogishū'' were scholars, Buddhist monks and tea masters who served

daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally t ...

(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 , also known as Jōdo Buddhism, is a branch of Pure Land Buddhism derived from the teachings of the Japanese ex-Tendai monk Hōnen. It was established in 1175 and is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan, along with Jōdo Shin ...

, 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. Around 1670 in the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

(1603–1867), three storytellers appeared who were regarded as the first ''rakugoka''. Tsuyuno Gorobe in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

, Yonezawa Hikohachi in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, and Shikano Buzaemon in

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

built simple huts around the same age and began telling funny stories to the general public for a price. Rakugo in this period was called ''Tsujibanashi'', but once it lost popularity, rakugo declined for about 100 years.落語入門.
Edogawa City In 1786, Utei Enba presided over a rakugo show at a '' ryōtei (traditional Japanese restaurant)'' 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. During the Edo period, thanks to the emergence of the merchant class of the ''

chōnin was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period. In the social hierarchy, it was considered subordinate to the samurai warrior class. Social Class The ''chōnin'' emerged in ''joka-machi'' or castle ...

'', 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'' (found written as , , or ; "storyteller"), corresponding to the modern term, . Before the advent of modern rakugo there were the : short comical vignettes ending with an ochi, popular between the 17th and the 19th centuries. 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'' (''Yesterday Stories Told Today'', c. 1620), 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 (1554–1642), the author of the ''Seisuishō'' (''Laughter to Chase Away Sleep'', 1628), a collection of more than 1,000 stories. In

(today's

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

) there also lived (1649–99) who wrote the ''Shikano Buzaemon kudenbanashi'' (''Oral Instruction Discourses of Shikano Buzaemon'') and the ''Shika no makifude'' (''The Deer's Brush'', 1686), a work containing 39 stories, eleven of which are about the

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance- drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought ...

milieu. (1743–1822) was author of the ''Rakugo rokugi'' (''The Six Meanings of Rakugo'').

was the home of (1643–1703), who is considered the father of the rakugo tradition of the Kamigata area (). 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

, 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 (9th). 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 a Japanese rakugo performer of the late 20th century, who often performed in English. He was born in Kobe, the son of a brick-maker. In 1960 he entered the tutelage of the rakugo performer , and upon completion of his study, was given the s ...

, was known outside Japan for his performances of rakugo in English.

Titles

* - 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)

References

External links

YouTube Rakugo examples

Rakugo video (in English) SFGTV San Francisco

* ttp://rakugogaku.com Learning Japanese Language and Culture through Rakugo Appreciation
The Conversation article about rakugo and gender
{{Authority control Japanese literature Theatre in Japan Japanese folk art Japanese comedy Performing arts in Japan