Why Rakugo in English?

Rakugo is a charming art of storytelling in Japan. True, Rakugo stories are mostly comical but don’t let that fool you. Some are highly sophisticated to even make you grin with years in your eyes; others can even induce you to sob a bit. So, don’t you hastily label Rakugo as a mere comical art of storytelling.

A half-century of experience in translation now prompts me to venture on the strenuous work of rendering Rakugo into readable English. You see, the hard part of it is that this thing Rakugo is highly local, extremely regional genre of expression, so that no average conversational English can even come close to convey precisely how Rakugo is “told” in House of Laughter or Yose (yow-say).

For, Rakugo talk is not even a language as such, it’s a murmuring or verbal coloring of the story proper with down-to-earth words and phrases that often constitute no decent sentence; you are expected to take it as it comes by – how it sounds, what it means, and how it lets the story roll on. So, you see how it is to transcribe it in English – any form or dialect for that matter.

(Kokontei Shinsho)

Rakugo is basically improvisational; in a way creative as the storyteller can weave up the story his way, any way, to pass the message across. The late master Kokontei Shinsho, for instance, would first look around the hall to sort of feel out the level and type of audience to “season” the story or even to abruptly switch the story to suite the audience each time.

Rakugo stories are rich in culture from head to tail, it’s loaded with countless terms and expressions known only to the native Japanese. English and Japanese are two distinct tongues: a little bird tells you whatever in English, whereas a bug does that in Japanese. Where you say yes in English, we say no with no offence. Subjects are more than often skipped in Japanese, but nothing makes sense in English, if you skip who or what does whatever.

So, you see, what I’m about to challenge is a sort of work few would dare. It wouldn’t work unless you love, understand and appreciate this art of storytelling called Rakugo – so much so that you care to share its charms with as many a non-Japanese across the world reachable in English. Wish me luck in this formidable venture. I sure need your friendly push from behind. (5-5-2020)

—Sponsered Link—