RAKUGO: Creating Worlds from Nothing

2023年01月04日

落語は一人で演じるコメディーです。落語家は、日本の伝統的な衣装である着物を着て演じます。扇子と手ぬぐいを使って、いろいろな人になりきります。扇子を箸に、タオルを茶碗に見立てるなど、さまざまな趣向が凝らされています。落語は「寄席」という特殊な劇場で楽しむことができます。(English) Rakugo is a comedy show performed alone. The Rakugoka wears kimono while performing, which is traditional Japanese clothing. A folding fan and a towel help a Rakugoka play like various people. For example, a folding fan is used as chopsticks, and a towel is used as a bowl. Rakugo can be enjoyed in a particular theater called "Yose."

RAKUGO: Creating Worlds from Nothing

Rakugo's roots go back 500 years to the Warring States Period when samurai were fighting all over Japan.

Warlords employed jesters to tell amusing tales and ease their stress.

This was one of the roots of Rakugo.

ii)

The Edo period began in the 17th century.

As peace continued to prevail, Rakugo was refined into a chic culture.

One performer sits on stage with no set and tells various stories with punchlines that make people laugh.

Nowhere else is there a narrative art quite like this.

iii)

Precisely because there's nothing, so many things can be expressed.

The audience can freely imagine their world.

The simpler the stories, the funnier or sadder their effect.

The repertoire has been built up over 300 - 400 years.

iv)

Why has this simple theater art fascinated people for so long?

Audiences and performers can share words, feelings, and scenes.

A Rakugo story is created as a result of everything shared.

The performers can't do it alone.

The audience can't enjoy just their particular world.

What matters is the ability to share... That's what creates quality work.

Brief Synopsis - The God of death

Hachigoro, in need of money, is taught by the God of death how to cure illness with a single spell, and from that day on, he becomes a doctor.

"Ajaraka Natose no, queue rice, Tekeretsu no pa."

However, he is told not to use the spell if the Grim Reaper is sitting at the bedside of a sick person, but he is blinded by money and casts the spell.

Hachigoro is taken by the God of death and arrives at the candle of life.

However, he learns that his "candle of life" has been exchanged for that of a sick man he saved.

He is told that his life will be saved if he connects his candle with another candle that is about to be extinguished.

"The Grim Reaper" has different endings depending on the Rakugo storyteller.

A must-see for all Rakugo fans.

Synopsis - Anime - Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu(lovers' suicide)

This is a story from the prewar to the post-bubble period.

A solitary man characterized by complex expression and a man of contrasting talents meets in the same school as Rakugo.

They pursue their respective art forms and their fears for the future of Rakugo.

The existence of the men's art of storytelling and Rakugo is portrayed as they encounter their peer relationships, colorful districts, men and women, pseudo-families, and fans.

Yotaro's Wandering Arc

The story takes place around the 1950s.

Rakugo had passed its peak and was overpowered by TV and the Manzai boom.

On his way home from prison, a former hoodlum, Kyoji, was moved by a Rakugo story, "Shinigami," performed by Yurakutei Yakumo VIII, whom he had visited one year earlier as a consolation visit.

After he is released from prison, he barges into a Rakugo theater where Yakumo performs and asks to become his apprentice.

Until then, Yakumo had said that he would not take an apprentice.

However, in his way, he allowed Kyoji to work with him as his valet and gave him the name Yotaro.

Yotaro moves in with Yakumo and meets Yakumo's adopted daughter, Konatsu.

He likes her father's style, the genius Rakugo storyteller Sukeroku Yurakutei II, who passed away early in his life and adopted it into his art.

At the same time, however, he gradually learns of the fate surrounding Sukeroku's death, Yakumo, and Konatsu.

One day, Yotaro performs Sukeroku's Rakugo at Yakumo's solo performance and, due to lack of practice, cools down the stage despite his low rank.

He also falls asleep offstage and is excommunicated by an enraged Yakumo.

On a snowy night, Yotaro desperately begs to be reinstated, but Yakumo orders him to keep three promises in exchange for not being excommunicated.

He begins a long old story about himself and Sukeroku.

Yakumo and Sukeroku Arc

The story takes place from before the Pacific War to the "golden age of Rakugo" around the 1950s.

The young Yakumo (Kikuhiko) was forced to enter the world of Rakugo, which he did not want to do, and he continued to suffer daily from the fact that he could not improve his Rakugo.

In contrast, Yurakutei Sukeroku II (Hatsutaro) is a genius and a flamboyant Rakugo performer who is gaining popularity and ability.

Kazuhiko is delicate and shadowy.

Sukeroku, on the other hand, was rough and cheerful.

They were the same age and entered the school of their master, Yurakutei Yakumo VII, on the same day.

The story reveals the adolescent patterns and fate of these two men, who together supported the world of Rakugo during its golden age.

The truth about the final days of Miyokichi and Sukeroku will also be revealed.

10)

Sukeroku Again Arc

The story takes place from the end of the Showa period to the beginning of the Heisei period. It is during the bubble economy and its immediate aftermath.

The popularity of Rakugo had declined entirely, there was only one Rakugo theater in Tokyo, and the only Rakugo news was the passing of a former master.

Yotaro, who had honed his craft, was promoted to the top(Shin-Uchi) and took on the name Sukeroku III, following in the footsteps of Konatsu's father.

11)

Konatsu was unmarried and pregnant at the time, and Sukeroku asked her to become his wife out of concern.

Konatsu is puzzled, but Sukeroku expresses his intense longing for a "family" since he is a lifelong solitary.

12)

Meanwhile, illness strikes Yakumo, who struggles with his past fate, his impending old age, and his loneliness.

Konatsu's son, Shinnosuke, is born.

The writer Higuchi, who has started an activity to preserve Rakugo, also appears.

13)

Yakumo, Sukeroku, and Konatsu change as they are caught up in the current of the times.

The film depicts the future of Rakugo, which Yakumo once tried to bury along with himself.