People in the News

Lecturer, Meikai University, and producer of English-language rakugo
Kimie Oshima

June 2002

Developing an Alternative Newspaper by and for the People

Kimie Oshimai
English-Rakugo
http://www.english-rakugo.com/

Making People Laugh with English Rakugo

"When I was asked whether the Japanese have any sense of humor, it occurred to me that the best way to change the sober, hardheaded image of the Japanese was to introduce the art of rakugo. You might call rakugo a 'sit-down comedy' as opposed to the stand-up comedy of the West." So says Kimie Oshima, a lecturer at Meikai University near Tokyo, who stages rakugo performances in English.

Oshima first became aware of cultural gaps as a high-school exchange student in the United States. It was this experience that sparked her interest in intercultural communication and eventually led her to take up English-language rakugo. "At first I thought it was because of my lack of English skills that I was having a hard time communicating with others," she confesses. But soon she realized that the barrier was not linguistic but cultural. By living in another culture, she says, she became very conscious of her Japanese identity.

Oshima also discovered how important humor is for communication in multicultural societies, as it is the most effective means of relieving feelings of nervousness between one another. In Western societies, humor is accorded a very high status. Good jokers are equated with quick thinkers, and some research indicates that sense of humor correlates with a salesperson's performance.

Japanese Are Humorous, Too

"Considering all this, it's no good for the Japanese to be labeled a humorless people," Oshima points out. "So I thought I had to do something about it." The problem was that she had no idea how to go about introducing Japanese humor to the world. Initially, Oshima tried to analyze the essence of Japanese laughter by watching TV shows and comedy acts, but coming up with something that would not be called an imitation of Western culture was not easy. It had to be something uniquely Japanese, she thought. And after extensive research, she settled on rakugo.

Rakugo is a form of monologue in which the storyteller (rakugo-ka) narrates a comic drama using skillful gestures and ends the tale with a punch line (ochi), all the while seated on a floor cushion. Its roots are said to trace back to the late sixteenth century. The Edo period (1600-1868) saw the emergence of many performers in Osaka and Edo (present-day Tokyo) who made a living out of comic storytelling, and rakugo gradually established itself as a tradition as the art was passed from master to apprentice. There continue to be many professional rakugo-ka today.

"Rakugo goes back three hundred years, longer than the history of the United States, so at least Americans won't be quick to dismiss it," Oshima says in explanation of her choice. But being herself quite ignorant of the art and its background, she had to spend more time studying classical Japanese language and culture than she did on improving her translation skills to bring the art to English speakers. Thus, thanks to her encounter with rakugo, she has gotten to know her country better.

Oshima has found that although Westerners tend to get frustrated by the indirect and ambiguous manner of speaking of the Japanese, they find it much more acceptable when used humorously in rakugo. This discovery has led her to feel that rakugo is perfect not just for introducing Japanese culture but also for getting people to understand the Japanese way of communicating.

Taking Rakugo Overseas

Oshima has organized several English-language rakugo tours overseas with a troupe of young professional rakugo-ka, starting with the United States in 1998 and then in Singapore and Australia. What she finds most interesting as she stages rakugo performances in English, she says, are international differences in the audience composition and in what people find funny. While the Japanese tend to think of rakugo as entertainment for the elderly, foreigners do not have such preconceptions. As a result, overseas rakugo shows are attended by people of all ages. "It was really strange seeing young women asking the rakugo-ka for autographs," Oshima recalls with a laugh.

At English-language performances in Japan, too, 20% of the spectators are foreigners and the rest are mostly Japanese women in their twenties and thirties. This contrasts with typical rakugo performances, where audiences are predominantly male. (The storytellers, it might be mentioned, are also exclusively male.) English rakugo shows are thus hoped to revive young people's interest in the art.

Oshima observes that Western audiences often break into laughter before the storyteller completes his sentence, presumably because quickness in "getting the joke" is seen as a measure of intelligence. Asians, on the hand, wait to hear the end of the sentence before they start laughing. According to Oshima's analysis, this may have to do with the fact that they generally do not have the habit of interrupting another in mid-sentence to make their point. A difference was also seen in the audience responses to a noodle-eating scene in the tale "Toki Udon." The rakugo-ka makes loud slurping sounds as he acts out the scene, as it is customary in Japan to slurp noodles. American and Australian audiences roared with laughter at this, but Singaporeans made no reaction. This was because Chinese Singaporeans eat noodles the same way.

Laughter is Oshima's source of vitality. Just having a store of humor within enables her to apply herself to anything with confidence. "Thinking it's okay to be laughed at is very important for one's mental health," she says. Everyone has imperfections. By making people laugh, one is saying, "I have such and such a flaw, and you can laugh at me for that." To be able to do so, though, is in fact a mark of confidence: "But I have such and such a forte, too!"

Oshima, who calls rakugo her lifework, is now fostering a troupe that performs not just rakugo but all sorts of comedies in English. She will go on her fifth overseas tour from August 17 to September 4, with performances scheduled in Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia. Her next goal is to form an English-language rakugo group made up of students and other nonprofessionals. Oshima is tireless in her search for new styles of humor.

Contact information:
rakugo-in-english@nifty.com
E-mail:yiu37579@nifty.com