The ogiri system sees a host put questions to a panel of fellow rakugo storytellers who must produce a funny or witty response.

Rakugo performers such as Hayashiya Sanpei II, Katsura Utamaru, and San'yūtei Enraku VI were formerly part of the cast.

Should the resultant answer be funny or witty, the member will receive one or more floor cushions (zabuton) - the number increasing with the level of audience response and the host's own amusement or admiration.

The floor cushion is brought to the stage by hapless sidekick Takao Yamada, formerly a successful popstar with the 70s idol group Zūtorubi, but now confined to an object of ridicule in his red kimono.

This phenomenon is often referred by the public jokingly as a "genocide"[citation needed], and in most cases as an "Utamaru genocide", since previous host Katsura Utamaru was the first to order a complete confiscation of the entire cast's zabuton in 2006 after San'yūtei Enraku VI (then known as San'yūtei Rakutarō), in concert with the other members, compared the elderly host to a "talking corpse".