It's basically Japanese storytelling, and a storyteller of Rakugo is called Rakugo-ka. Rakugo is one of important cultures which has entertained people for long time. Rakugo-ka basically sits on Japanese cushion and tells one story at one time by oneself, and a story generally is a story of a few characters generally, and Rakugo-ka plays them by oneself by changing accent, intonation and facial expression in order to tell listeners so that listeners can imagine situation as accurate as possible. Better Rakugo-ka is usually good at this. This is what I know about Rakugo, and I haven't gone to Rakugo places even though this is Japanese culture. I'm embarrassed about this actually. But I think that there are many young people who feel same with me about Rakugo. It's definitely because there is no TV programs about Rakugo but few if any, and Rakugo is considered to be something old for young people. When we grew up in school time, there had been many things to do like game, anime and TV, other than listening Rakugo.
A few months ago, I happened to see an article about one person who is a British lady. Her name is Diane Orrett. When she was young, she quit her job and traveled around the world. Japan was one of her visits. When she stayed in Japan, she came across one Rakugo-ka, and it seemed so attractive that she decided to follow him as a his trainee to learn Rakugo in order to do it by herself in English finally.
Here is her one of videos on Youtube. She is telling what Rakugo is from her point of view to you.
Every time when I see foreigners have interest in Japanese cultures, I feel happy actually, and also wonder if foreigners feel same when Japanese become interested in their cultures.
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