Rakugo

Rakugo (落語, literally 'story with a fall')[1] is a form of Japanese verbal comedy, traditionally performed in yose theatres.

Using only a paper fan (扇子, sensu) and a small cloth (手拭, tenugui) 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 speaker is in the middle of the stage, and his purpose is to stimulate the general hilarity with tone and limited, yet specific body gestures.

Twelve kinds of ochi are codified and recognized, with more complex variations having evolved through time from the more basic forms.

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.

[1]: 38  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").

Tsuyuno Gorobe in Kyoto, Yonezawa Hikohachi in Osaka, and Shikano Buzaemon in Edo built simple huts around the same age and began telling funny stories to the general public for a price.

During the 17th century the actors were known as hanashika (found written as 噺家, 咄家, or 話家; "storyteller"), corresponding to the modern term, rakugoka (落語家, "person of the falling word").

Before the advent of modern rakugo there were the kobanashi (小噺): short comical vignettes ending with an ochi, popular between the 17th and the 19th centuries.

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.

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 Yonezawa Hikohachi I [ja], who lived in Ōsaka towards the end of the 17th century.

In the great confusion following, a doctor arrives who takes his pulse and calmly gives the instructions: "Pull the plug and let the water out."

Furthermore, many people regarded as more mainstream comedians originally trained as rakugoka apprentices, even adopting stage names given to them by their masters.