Katsura Utamaru (桂 歌丸, 14 August 1936 – 2 July 2018) was a Japanese rakugo comedian best known for hosting the Shōten comedy show on Nippon TV.

He is known as a master of the Japanese comic art of rakugo, in which a single performer or storyteller appears on stage and tells comedic stories to the audience.

[1] He changed his name to Katsura Utamaru in 1964 and rose to the shin'uchi rank in 1968.

[2] He became the head of the Rakugo Geijutsu Kyokai in 2004, and received many honors, including the Order of the Rising Sun in 2007.

[1] He died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on 2 July 2018 at a hospital in Yokohama.