Good morning, I am Poon Jada Wing Hang, a student in Li Po Chun United World College, doing my research presentation on Rakugo, a sit down comedy originated in Japan.

Rakugo, literally can be translated as fallen words, is a Japanese theater about the art of storytelling by one person. The stories could varies from heart-warming stories to ghost stories with different characters, yet they all ends with an ochi, which is the punch line in the end of the story that is comical in nature.

As a host announce the upcoming performing rakugoga, which is the performer, they change the performing name tag, and the band would plays music, then the rakugoga would enter.

Rakugoga, wearing traditional Japanese kimono, would enter to their position which is a cushion on a stage, named koza literally means high seat, with their two props, a paper fan and a towel. They knee sit on the cushion, before they start talking, they would greet the audience by having both hands down and bow.

The rakugoga would then launch into the long and complicated comical story which mainly consist of dialogues with minimal narration, so the rakugoga would need to act different roles when performing using their voice, actions and the direction of their face to indicate the change of characters instead of telling the audience, explicitly which character is talking.

So how is it formed?

Date back to the 700s, where Buddhism spread throughout Japan, in order to appeal more to the lower classes people, Japanese preachers reinterpreted popular Japanese, Chinese, and Indian stories according to their own doctrines which were later collected and became the basics of some classical rakugo stories.

Through centuries, the Buddhist preacher developed Sermon formulas, providing the storytellers with indispensable technique of narration. It includes chanting, gesticulation, use of metaphors and droll illustration. forming the basics of rakugo's performing style.

Before the late 17th centuries, there were no such thing called rakugo, but some form of storytelling in the street of popular stage hero in kabuki for the lower class who could not afford to watch the real show. As the performance is more defined, a short story ending with an ochi, giving the comical ending, Rakugo was formed, yet the term rakugo is only generally accepted in the later half of the 19th century. Professional halls for rakugo performance were built and rakugo evolve from being just a street performance to also be a place for social gathering, but the main audience was still the commoner.

To become a professional rakugoga, one must apprentice to a professional rakugoga. It takes around 12 to 16 years to actually become the headline which is the professional rakugoga.

It is worth highlighting that in the three stages of learning, in the first stage, the student would live with the teacher and was obligated to do all the housework, helping the teacher with daily life work but they would not need to pay for anything, then they learn skills and imitate their teacher by observing and listening.

This does not only reflect the emphasis of felial piety and the manner in Japanese culture as they usually do the housework out of respect and gratitude toward the teacher, but also prove that rakugo is a verbal art as no teaching or learning shall be written down. The reason behind such practice is because of the belief that every rakugoga should have their own style, their own approach toward a story, or else when everyone is doing the exact same thing, telling the same story, there would not be such need for the audience to return, and rakugo would eventually die out. Also, it is an insult to imitate another rakugoga without any filter as the rakugoga worked to establish their unique characteristic.

Here you can see how a performer is respected and not restrained in the way to perform.
The stage name of a performer is very important as it represents the rakugoga and the audience would have an expectation for the rakugoga to perform in their own style.