Date: Thursday, April 5
Time: 10:00am coffee; 10:30 in TUC Sanctuary
“Rakugo” is a traditional Japanese entertainment performed by a lone storyteller (or Rakugo-ka in Japanese) that wears Kimono and sits on the stage. Rakugo stories always involve comical dialogue of two or more characters depicted through changes in the pitch or tone of a voice and also a slight turn of the head.
A paper fan (or Sensu) and a small cloth (or Tenugui) are must props for this performance and it is something you can enjoy watching how they are cleverly used to depict what each character does so lively.
The origin of Rakugo can be traced back to the early 13th century and became popular among people in the Edo era (around 17th century). Many groups of performers were formed and collected texts were also printed then.
Makoto Tamura and Satoru Tomita both started Rakugo in a Rakugo study group in Tokyo University when they were students there. Each of them will perform one of the most famous and popular Rakugo stories, Time Noodles (or Toki-soba) and The Zoo (Dobutsu-en.)
All the stories are well translated in English so you will enjoy traditional Japanese sense of humor and comical stories which have been told for hundreds of years.
Please come join us and let’s laugh loud together!
