The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan: Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Rakugo by M. W. Shores

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan: Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Rakugo by M. W. Shores Till Weingärtner (bio) The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan: Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Rakugo. By M. W. Shores. Cambridge University Press, 2021. xliv, 245 pages. $99.99, cloth; $80.00, E-book. Over the last ten years or so, rakugo, the Japanese performance art of comedic storytelling, has grown in popularity and attention within the field of Japan studies. This is not only the result of increased academic interest from established scholars and graduate students; it is also because of expanding opportunities to experience rakugo without traveling to Japan. More and more performers are taking their art abroad, speaking either in Japanese with subtitles, in the language of the country in which they are performing, or in Japanese for audiences who are able to understand them. For example, academics from the field had opportunities to witness performances by Tatekawa Shinoharu as part of the online reception of the 2021 conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies and performances organized by the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge in April 2022. The recent pandemic may have limited such opportunities, but the larger number of Japanese rakugo performers who reach out to audiences via the Internet and share online content, both free and paid for, has also created more opportunities for interested audiences outside the country. With this greater interest in the genre, M. W. Shores's The Comic Storytelling of Western Japan: Satire and Social Mobility in Kamigata Rakugo is a timely and welcome addition to the English-language literature on the topic of rakugo and constitutes the fourth relevant monograph, following earlier publications by Heinz Morioka and Miyoko Sasaki, Lorie Brau, and Ian McArthur. 1 As the title indicates, Shores's study focuses on the rakugo tradition of Osaka and the wider Kansai region (known as Kamigata rakugo) and discusses this topic in English for the first time. While Morioka [End Page 210] and Sakaki's Rakugo: The Popular Narrative Art of Japan , published over 30 years ago, explores aspects of the history, story content, and performance techniques of Tokyo rakugo, it only briefly acknowledges the rakugo tradition of Osaka. Shores highlights Tokyo rakugo scholars' superficial understanding and lack of interest in Kamigata rakugo throughout his book. He also succeeds at providing the reader with insight into why Kamigata rakugo was often ignored or judged as being second-class to the rakugo performed within the capital, even in Japanese-language scholarship and criticism. Indeed, Shores's book can be read as a love letter for Kamigata rakugo, and the reader is often left with a smile on their face when Shores attributes the contempt of Tokyo rakugo fans to ignorance. Through the author's skilled guidance, drawing on Shores's own experiences as a comedic performer, the book succeeds in enabling the reader to identify key differences between the two traditions. Like Lorie Brau, the author of Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Tokyo, Shores shares his wide-ranging background and experience as an apprentice in the rakugo world, where he spent a combined four years under the tutelage of Kamigata rakugo masters Katsura Bunshi V and Hayahiya Somemaru IV. While Shores's study reflects his work as a participant observer, it constitutes less of an insider's testimonial than Brau's work. His study of Kamigata rakugo is spread out over three chapters. First, he considers the context of the art within Kamigata and Osaka and draws connections to other performing arts from the region, focusing on the sociohistorical origins of the prominent merchant class in Osaka. A second chapter provides a concise overview of the history of Kamigata rakugo, beginning with its roots prior to 1600 and then looking at the development of the genre and selected performers from the Edo period to the Reiwa era. Finally, Shores approaches Kamigata rakugo as literature, analyzing the content and form of the stories as performed by its regional practitioners. Shores presents a conversation (or what he calls a geidan, adopting the common practice of Japanese publications) with his master...