Essay How I fell in love with rakugo By 桂三輝	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
落語と恋に落ちて 今週から本コラムの寄稿者に加わった桂三輝さんは、カナダ出身の落語家だ。 もともと落語に興味があったわけではなく、その出会いは極めて偶然だったが、落語のシンプルな形式や高座での観客との微妙な呼吸に、「ストーリーテリングの芸術」を強く印象付けられたのだった。

I am sometimes asked, jokingly, if I was hoping to meet samurai and ninja when I first came to Japan. In actual fact, when I first came here from Canada 11 years ago, I was stunned at how very much alive Japanese traditional culture is. I didn't ever expect to see people dressed in kimonos, except on stage at the Kabuki theater or perhaps at a tea ceremony. I didn't think I'd see people wearing them out for special occasions, like weddings, or festivals, or even for nights out to dinner or the theater.

I certainly didn't expect that I would someday wear a kimono for a living!

My first experience of rakugo was thanks to my love for another great part of Japanese culture, the yakitoriya. I was a regular customer at the "Hanaya" yakitori shop in Yokohama. One day, the owner, Mr. Ken Uchino, asked me if I would like to see rakugo -- they had bimonthly rakugo shows at the restaurant. Little did I know that his casual invitation to experience another great part of Japanese culture, in the upstairs tatami room of his little restaurant, would end up completely changing my life.

Rakugo is traditional Japanese comic storytelling. The lone storyteller in a kimono kneels on a cushion and speaks for usually between 10 and 40 minutes. A fan and hand towel are the only props. Things don't get much simpler than that!

There is also a set structure to the way a storyteller's performance unfolds. At first there is some kind of formal greeting, aisatsu, followed by some light anecdotes of the storyteller's own choice and composition. This section is called the makura or pillow, and is actually quite similar to stand-up comedy.

The storyteller then slowly brings the theme of the makura toward the theme of the story he or she is going to tell, and before you know it, the main story, hanashi, has begun. There is a canon of rakugo stories that dates back over 300 years, and some storytellers compose their own original stories as well. Although the storytellers will often not divulge which story they are going to tell, many experienced audience members are able to guess which story is coming just by how the storyteller is fashioning his makura anecdotes. The moment the story begins, and many in the audience draw a satisfied breath at having guessed correctly which story the storyteller has chosen to tell, is one of my favorite moments of any art or entertainment form I have experienced to date, and is completely peculiar to rakugo.

With its molding of simplicity and variation, tradition and originality, rigid formality and ridiculous comedy, I like to think of rakugo as the perfect storytelling art.

Shukan ST: August 13, 2010

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