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The Death and Rebirth of Rakugo


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Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Anne wrote:
Quote:
During last year's vacation to Japan, I went to see a rakugoka. He had just returned from touring Europe, where his performances had been subtitled in English to bridge the language barrier. In his introduction, he told the Tokyo-ites how several audience members had asked him to perform Nozarashi – these young Westerners had discovered a pre-modern performance art from a faraway country through a different form of pop culture entirely: anime. This anecdote earned him cheers from the local crowd. Obviously, age isn't the only barrier powerless to stop empathy, as these new rakugo fans from other cultures have been introduced to the artform through Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū.


That's so cool! I didn't know there were rakugoka touring Europe, definitely need to catch one next time. Smile

Very nice article. I'm definitely hoping as well that Kiku's going to be able to find peace, knowing that rakugo will be in good hands and that he was able to fulfill his promise to Sukeroku. But i'm sure there's gonna be a lot of drama and heartbreak before that happens and i'm totally ready for it...
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 2:27 pm Reply with quote
There's a real risk in modernising Rakugo, that could actually just be the final nail in the coffin for it. Think of it as a time capsule, what if people re opened them periodically to take stuff out and put new stuff in them, would anybody find them interesting?

Rakugo is not disappearing because there's some insidious plot against it, its disappearing because new technology and greater connection to the rest of the world are bringing about new form of entertainment that Rakugo has to compete with for people's attention and money. And Rakugo quite simply cannot properly compete with them. It's last card is that it's seemingly frozen in time, that people watching a performance today are experiencing something almost identical to what someone hundreds of year ago would experience. If you modernize it, it would lose that quality but would still have to compete with newer form of entertainment, would it be able to? And if you modernise it too much, how would it be different from just regular stand up comedy?
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 2:50 pm Reply with quote
Wow, not one mention of Joshiraku. It's not like there's a lot of other anime that feature rakugo.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11288
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:25 pm Reply with quote
If the first episode is representative, I wouldn't say Joshiraku "features" rakugo. It looks like, as the OP says, "back stage is the main stage," and rakugo doesn't have much to do with the cute girls talking about nothing for all but about 3 min of the run time, but is instead just an excuse for them to be together. Unless they dramatically shift gears after the first episode, which I could barely get through for the mind-numbing inanity of their conversation, I'm not sure what's to be learned about rakugo from this, other than the format of kneeling on stage and telling a supposedly funny story (who knows though, since we hardly got any of the story).

As for the article itself, I say, well done! Very much worth the read, and the personal anecdote was quite interesting.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:39 pm Reply with quote
There's plenty to learn about rakugo in Joshiraku's first episode. Just read these translator notes for various rakugo terms and references featured therein.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 5:12 pm Reply with quote
I know it's killing you that the cute-girls comedy isn't getting as much attention as the serious-boys drama, but you're really reaching here. There is a tiny bit to learn about rakugo from the translator's notes, but not from the anime. There were like two things about rakugo that were actually put forth within the anime. Again, I've only seen the first episode, so if the rest are like this, then no, this does not "feature" rakugo.

I did, however, learn more about the joke behind the monkey's name in Gintama! So that was worthwhile. Smile
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 5:32 pm Reply with quote
All the phrases in the translators notes are said or shown in the anime itself. It's just that English doesn't have exact equivalents to the very specific rakugo terms so the English subs use localized text with the full explanation in the translator notes.

If you want rakugo performances itself, Joshiraku has a ton of those on drama CDs like this one Knock yourself out.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:09 pm Reply with quote
Actually they're not. The very first thing the tl notes reveal is shimote (left wing) and mekuri (place for the names). Neither of those is mentioned in the scene where they're shown. The only other rakugo-specific notes are the gokurousama greeting (which is hardly reserved for the rakugo world as the note indicates) and the list of titles, which are explained in the anime (total run time of the episode's rakugo-specific details is less than 20 seconds, not counting the brief snippets of two performances). All the rest of it is just explaining all the puns when they're chatting about different kinds of lolis, wearing pjs on the street in China, favorite brands of gyuudon, etc.

And if I have to go to CDs to hear the full performances, I might as well spend the time listening to actual rakugo performers. Either way, it still doesn't make the anime about rakugo.

If Joshiraku can't be much bothered to talk about rakugo, I don't see why an article about rakugo should be bothered to talk about Joshiraku, or any other anime that uses the word. If the article were about karuta, I don't think you'd be complaining that Chihayafuru was the sole focus, with no mention of the game being played in Nanbaka, or any other series it's been brought up in.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:13 pm Reply with quote
I'm not familiar with Nanbaka, but are all the main characters karuta players like how Joshiraku's main cast are all rakugo performers? The anime that taught me all about rakugo was Joshiraku.

I'll make this quite simple. The following paragraph from the article

Quote:
these young Westerners had discovered a pre-modern performance art from a faraway country through a different form of pop culture entirely: anime. This anecdote earned him cheers from the local crowd. Obviously, age isn't the only barrier powerless to stop empathy, as these new rakugo fans from other cultures have been introduced to the artform through Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū.


Append "and other anime featuring rakugo like Joshiraku" to that sentence and hurrah, no longer is this article completely ignoring other anime that may have introduced rakugo concepts to these young Westerners. That's not particularly much, so I have no idea why you are continuing to debate this. I didn't learn about rakugo by watching Rakugo Shinjuu. I learned about it from Joshiraku. 5 years ago.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:19 pm Reply with quote
^Does Joshiraku feature Nozarashi? Because the anecdote seems to be entirely about how some Westerners, having specifically seen that performance in Rakugo Shinjuu, became acquainted with the medium and that's why it was requested from the performer. Why would Joshiraku have to be mentioned as "an anime that introduced people to rakugo" if the Westerners this particular performer met didn't mention it?
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:42 pm Reply with quote
The sentence I quoted says "introduced to the artform". That's not referring to a specific performance but rather rakugo as a whole, is it not? Also, from what I can tell what I quoted is the writer of the article speaking in a very general sense (hence the use of the plural cultures despite the rakugoka only talking about one specific instance where he was asked by the audience)
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CrowLia



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PostPosted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 12:00 am Reply with quote
The quote is coming directly after the Nozarashi anecdote though (which, assuming by your response, is not in fact featured in Joshiraku), even saying "these new rakugo fans" so it's very obviously refering specifically to the Westerners the performer met. With no evidence that these foreigners even knew Joshiraku existed, it would be fallacious to claim they were introduced to rakugo through that sho
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chaccide



Joined: 16 Aug 2016
Posts: 295
PostPosted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 10:36 am Reply with quote
There was also a popular Western YA novel published in 2014 about a Rakugo-ka, told in the style of a performance, called The Storyteller and his Three Daughters by Lian Hearn. I'm sure that piqued people's interest. Though the book is less about performances than is one about the power and pain of storytelling.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:48 pm Reply with quote
Even as someone who was introduced to rakugo by Joshiraku and watched the whole show as it aired, I'm going to have to agree that mention of Joshiraku is unnecessary. I agree with CrowLia that it is unlikely that those individuals in the West referred to in the anecdote were familiar with Joshiraku. Beyond the particular piece they mentioned, Joshiraku was not terribly popular, in Japan or elsewhere. And that is probably an overstatement of its popularity. I don't think it is even legally available for streaming!
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Knoepfchen



Joined: 13 Dec 2012
Posts: 698
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 4:52 am Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
Append "and other anime featuring rakugo like Joshiraku" to that sentence and hurrah, no longer is this article completely ignoring other anime that may have introduced rakugo concepts to these young Westerners. That's not particularly much, so I have no idea why you are continuing to debate this. I didn't learn about rakugo by watching Rakugo Shinjuu. I learned about it from Joshiraku. 5 years ago.


I'm sure there are lots of Westerners who were introduced to rakugo through other means over the years, which is great and I'd say only supports the points I was making about the importance of keeping traditional art forms approachable for new audiences.
2016 wasn't the first year that rakugoka went on tour abroad. It's quite possible that, a few years ago, he would have told a different anecdote, but last year, the role Rakugo Shinju played in prompting at least some of the European college students participating in this exchange to sign up for his workshops and watch his performances was worth mentioning to him and, consequently, me. And if there's a new anime/novel/whatever that draws more people in next year, all the better.
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