Canadian Brings Japanese Art of Comic Storytelling to the World
A Canadian comic and playwright is successfully taking on one of Japan's most popular traditional forms of entertainment with a goal of introducing it to the world.
Katsura “Sunshine” has mastered rakugo, Japan's “art of comic storytelling“. He's the only officially qualified non-Japanese rakugo professional in the world and gets the first part of his name from Katsura Bunshi VI, the “master” who showed him the ropes.
As a performance art, rakugo itself is deceptively simple. According to Katsura Sunshine:
"A minimalistic performance art, rakugo features a lone storyteller dressed in kimono, kneeling on a cushion, who, using only a fan and a hand towel for props, entertains the audience with a comic monologue followed by a traditional story."
The story always involves dialogues and rakugo performers switch between different characters by using different intonations, gestures and dialects.
It is believed that rakugo was invented in the 9th and 10th century by Buddhist monks in an attempt to make their sermons more interesting.
While Katsura Sunshine does perform in Japanese, he also has made an effort to translate the artform into English.
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Katsura (then named Gregory Robic) first arrived in Japan in 1999, intending to stay for only six months. Nine years later he was still in Japan, and decided to train as a rakugo storyteller. In recent years Katsura Sunshine has taken his show on the road, performing in front of international audiences.
At the moment Katsura Sunshine is based in Ise, a small city in rural Japan. He regularly performs around the world, and intends to, at some point, open an off-Broadway show devoted to rakugo.
Katsura Sunshine's rakugo performances can be found online on his YouTube channel, and on Timeline, a Japanese site focusing on news, technology and entertainment.
