Folks, don’t let the title misguide you. Simple as it may sound, “My Bed” is a genuine classic Rakugo masterpiece with plenty of Japanese culture woven into the story line, specifically verbal culture so unique that not every native Japanese feels at home with.

To fully appreciate its charms, a pint of knowledge is perhaps prerequisite on the subtle differences in Japan’s altogether three arts of storytelling i.e. Rakugo and two others of somewhat quasi-melodic type: Naniwabushi and Gidaiyu – specifically Gidaiyu.

Kabuki is a rather well known Japanese stage art and so is Bunraku, a traditional puppet play. Those of you who have watched Bunraku alive, you remember of a pair of artists, a storyteller and his shamisen accompanist. You also remember the storyteller reciting quasi-melodic lines to the shamisen accompaniment to match the story being performed by the puppets on the stage. Now, this quasi-melodic recitativo is otherwise called Gidaiyu.

Gidaiyu is no layman’s hobby; it takes years to master this art and when performed professionally Gidaiyu is a irreplaceable vehicle of verbal presentation.

My Bed is the story of a landlord with Gidaiyu for his one and only hobby nagging his tenants into “appreciating” layman’s art, thereby raising all commotions.

So, there it is.

My Bed is a peeping hole for you to observe how common people used to thrive somewhere in Yedo.

Now, don’t you be discouraged. Nedoko, My Bed, humorously describes how an untalented old landlord with a blind interest in Gidaiyu forcing his tenants to taste the fruits of his unrewarded effort. You only require a pint of imagination how ill-presented performance by an untalented fancier of Gidaiyu.

Gidaiyu is a style of storytelling with dialogues and outlines interwoven all along, the former in normal expressive speech and the latter based on extremely quasi-melodic lines. Bunraku or the traditional Japanese puppet plays are performed to the accompaniment of Gidaiyu.

Gidaiyu melodies can hardly be taken down in musical notation.

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