Rakugo: one teller, many characters

A rakugo performer usually sits in kimono on a raised platform, the kōza, and develops a story through dialogue and gesture. The material may be comic or emotionally serious. A folding fan and a small cloth are the usual props. One actor plays the story’s different people, a different arrangement from a two-person manzai act.

A turn of the head, a changed voice and a gesture distinguish the people in a conversation. On the audience’s right is kamite; on the audience’s left, shimote. Indoor scenes can use those directions to establish positions. If a host occupies the upper seat, the performer looks one way as the host and the opposite way as the visitor.

In an indoor conversation between a landlord and Hachigorō, imagine the landlord seated in kamite, on the audience’s right, and Hachigorō opposite. As the landlord, the performer looks towards the audience’s left, shimote; as Hachigorō, towards its right, kamite. The actor stays in the centre. Opposing lines of sight make the two imagined people appear to address one another: where a character sits and where he looks are different parts of the arrangement.

Depending on the grip and action, a folded fan can stand for chopsticks, a smoking pipe, a fishing rod or a kitchen knife. The cloth can become a book, letter, wallet or roasted sweet potato. The handling supplies the clue; a separate real prop is not required for each object in the story.

The opening makura may use conversation or a short joke to settle the audience and test its reactions. It can also explain an old word needed later. The main story follows, often ending in an ochi or sage: a witty turn, pun or play on sound. Some emotionally focused stories have no comic punchline.

In one telling of Manjū kowai (“Afraid of sweet buns”), friends discuss their fears. Matsu claims to fear manjū and retreats next door. They buy buns and pile them beside his pillow to frighten him, but he eats them while protesting fear. When the trick is exposed, he says he fears a cup of tea. His earlier behaviour reveals what this new “fear” means: he wants a drink to follow the sweets.

Classical rakugo is a repertoire developed through generations of performance, with tellers still adjusting its delivery. New or creative rakugo is written by performers or other authors. Stories feature neighbours, shop workers, samurai, weddings and seasonal outings, among many subjects. Comedy, emotional narrative, ghost stories and theatrical pieces place different demands on a performance. Dialogue is common, but jibanashi relies more on narration.

Kamigata rakugo, developed around Kyoto and Osaka, can use a kendai desk, small wooden kobyōshi clappers and a hizakakushi screen in front of the knees. Some stories incorporate shamisen and other music, called hamemono, to suggest travel, changes of scene or feeling. Tokyo and Kamigata performers have also long exchanged repertoire.

Many Tokyo organisations use the grades zenza, futatsume and shin’uchi. Apprentices learn under a master; backstage work includes assisting with clothing, drumming and recording the stories performed so that the same programme avoids repetition. Promotion criteria differ among organisations. A shin’uchi may take pupils; the terminology is not one uniform qualification system for every region.

A yose presents successive acts, combining rakugo with other variety entertainment. The closing performer holds the tori position. Rakugo also takes place in halls, temples and smaller hospitality venues, through solo recitals and other events. A single storyteller’s recital and a mixed yose programme offer different ways of hearing it.

Medieval tale collections preserved humorous stories, and Buddhist preaching also used them. Anrakuan Sakuden gathered jokes in Seisuishō and later became known as an ancestor of rakugo. In the late seventeenth century, Tsuyu no Gorobē in Kyoto, Yonezawa Hikohachi in Osaka and Shikano Buzaemon in Edo charged for street or room performances, establishing different professional settings.

Utei Enba held a new-story gathering in 1786. Okamoto Mansaku gave a yose entertainment in Edo in 1791, and Sanshōtei Karaku did so in 1798; the latter is one influential proposed starting point for professional rakugo and yose. Nineteenth-century performers developed theatrical stories, musical stories and ghost tales with mechanisms and puppets. The Tenpō reforms also temporarily restricted the theatres.

Across the late Edo and Meiji periods, San’yūtei Enchō created long narratives including Shinkei Kasane-ga-fuchi and Kaidan Botan Dōrō, later adapted in other arts. He moved from scenery and musical accompaniment towards subanashi, storytelling without those additions. Performers such as San’yūtei En’yū also attracted audiences with dance, topical revisions and new stories. The Meiji stage was not confined to one spare form.

Records extended rakugo’s audience from the Taishō into the early Shōwa years, and radio broadcasts began in 1925. The 1923 earthquake, economic hardship and war also damaged the theatres. During the war, performers set aside 53 stories judged unsuitable for the times; air raids destroyed most Tokyo yose. Theatres reopened after the war.

As Osaka entertainment shifted towards manzai in early Shōwa, Shōfukutei Shokaku V and colleagues sustained Kamigata rakugo through Rakugosō performances and a magazine. Performances resumed after the war, and the Kamigata Rakugo Association was formed in 1957. Commercial radio, hall recitals and television expanded postwar opportunities. A photograph of a 1965 Bunka Hōsō public recording preserves a joint appearance by Shinshō and his sons. In 1993, San’yūtei Karuta and Kokontei Kikuchiyo became female shin’uchi in the Rakugo Association. Closures and restricted seating in 2020 were accompanied by increased streaming and performers’ own video uploads.