Courtesy of the Hofstra History Department
Japanese culture is filled with many long-standing traditions that stretch years – even centuries – into the past. Rakugo is no exception. The art form started developed 400 years ago and was slowly perfected into a unique form of comedy that is still popular in modern Japan today. Hofstra students in Japanese Language and Culture classes had the unique chance to meet with a master of the art, Yanagiya Tozaburo, an expert who has been practicing rakugo for over 20 years. Tozaburo led a small workshop and demonstration of rakugo in front of a Japanese television crew and many intrigued students.
“Rakugo has certain props,” he told the audience, facing them while sitting in seiza – a traditional, formal way of sitting in Japanese culture. He was dressed in a red, flowing kimono, as he sat on a decorative table, atop his cushioned knees. He paused the traditional rakugo music that was playing when he approached the table.
“There is the fan, which can become many things,” he said, demonstrating. Completely closing the fan becomes chopsticks to mime eating udon noodles; opening it just slightly becomes a spoon, which he pretends to put into soup; slowly opening it in such a way that it resembles opening a letter. “Then,” Tozaburo said, picking up the hand-towel, “this can also transform into different items – a book, a hot potato, a box.” He demonstrated them all in quick succession.
The importance of these props became very apparent when Master Tozaburo began to perform, as well as how they enhanced the performance. Rakugo is done by a comedian dressed in kimono, seated on a cushion and with only the fan and hand towel as props to craft a compelling story. They cannot stand, but must remain seated the entire time. Despite these restrictions, Master Tozaburo had a lot of material to draw upon – in his first two stories, which were relayed in English, he relied on making faces, changing his voice, changing the direction he was facing and his expert body language and hand movement skills to immerse the audience in his story. The punchline of the joke seemed especially important – everything that he relayed throughout the story lead up to a punchline designed to make the audience burst into laughter, which he encouraged the audience to do “if they felt the urge to.”
Tozaburo performed two stories in English, “The Monkey” and “The Zoo,” before switching to Japanese for his final story, a traditional rakugo story from the Edo period called “Cat’s Bowl.” Despite switching to another language, the audience remained immersed in the story not only through a subtitled screen, but also through Tozaburo’s miming of different characters and creatures throughout the story – the cat, for example, simpered and meowed similar to a cat from a cartoon, adding to the comedy as it unfolded.
Once Tozaburo finished demonstrating rakugo, two students from the Advanced Japanese Language class performed and had their work critiqued, before students were invited to volunteer to participate in a short rakugo gesture workshop. Once this was done, the audience was invited to ask questions directly to Tozaburo.
Tozaburo originally attended an arts college, majoring in creative writing before dropping out to become a discipline of master rakugo performer Yanagiya Gontaro III in 1999. While he did not regret his decision, he still urged the students in the room to complete their schoolwork. “I realized,” he relayed in Japanese as a sensei translated, “That I could have waited another year and graduated. I encourage you all to finish your schooling no matter what you want to pursue!” He also spoke briefly on his favorite rakugo stories to perform – “Love stories,” he said with a jolly grin – and how he balances creating longer, more traditional stories for older audiences and faster, easier to follow stories for young children. While he is still busy touring and performing rakugo, Tozaburo is also working on a novel about rakugo and family, as well as a piece that he says will incorporate New York as a setting. “I love to read, I love to talk in front of people and make them laugh and I love making stories,” he said. “I chose this profession mainly because I love creating stories and making people laugh.”
Laugh the students did – a demonstration of how Tozaburo truly is a master in his field. The performance not only delighted many students in the audience, but it was also a true demonstration of how some traditions never die, as well as how comedy transcends time period, place and language.
