Rakugo Report
Astri Nur Faizah
11998001
It was my first time seeing a real typical Japanese
comedy performance. I did not know before that one-man-show could be very
amusing but this one convinced me.
Rakugo is a sit-down comedy where a performer
on his knees performs a monologue ending with skillfully delivered punch lines
called ochi (落ち). Professional rakugo storytellers are called rakugoka (落語家) or hanashika (話家) (taken from http://www.jref.com/glossary/rakugo.shtml).
Rakugo can be best described as Japanese
sit-down comedy of comic story telling. Just as there is stand-up comedy in the
western countries, there is sit-down comedy in Japan. Most obviously, the
difference is that the performer sits on his knees when he performs.
The performer wears traditional formal
Japanese clothes (Kimono) and sometimes wears a pair of long wide pants
(Hakama) and/or a formal jacket (Haori).The performer is usually equipped with
a fan (Sensu) and hand towel (Tenugui). These items help the performer express
and act out the story. For example, the fan can be chopsticks, scissors,
cigarettes, pipe, or pen. The towel could be a book, bills, or an actual towel.
The performer sits on a small mattress, dressed in his Kimono and acts out the
whole story by himself.
“It is verbal art and a humorous entertainment
at the same time. It’s not just a series of jokes, in discrete segments; it’s a
continuous story. Rakugo is interesting because when you think about
Japanese culture you don’t think about humor—and rakugo is all about
humor” (taken from http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/news/japanese_standup.htm).
I think the hardest part is the conversation
changes. There were many characters in the story but only one performer. Therefore,
he must be able play the role of each distinct character. There are always
several characters in a Rakugo story. The performers play each character by
changing voice, facial expression, mannerisms, speech, etc.. In most cases the
characters have strong stereotypical personalities and characteristics so that
as the performer switches from one character to another the audience readily
detects the change.
Rakugo is a unique form of story-telling which
includes comedy and play as well as art. It is important to the Japanese people
that the style, structure and rich tradition of Rakugo be passed on to
succeeding generations. Even though for foreigners it was quite hard to
understand stories which are told in Japanese language, we still had it fun
when watching rakugo in English version. Still I consider Japanese version is
funnier because there are many typical-Japanese-jokes.
Example
of rakugo-on-stage
