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	<< Back "DAWN" Newsletter of The DAWN CENTER Interview "A Woman Playing Women Debuts" Taking into account the traditional form of "Rakugo," Ayame Katsura tells stories, describing women who share the present time with us as if they are there. Ayame is an up-and-coming raconteur of the Kamigata (Kyoto-Osaka area in Japan) based Rakugo circle. A typical Rakugo story is a comical one which is unfolded on a stage while a storyteller kneeling in traditional Japanese clothes on a small cushion plays several characters. Each story ends in an episode which arouses laughter. The origin dates back to the Edo era. Ayame said, "I call Rakugo players traditional storytellers to introduce them to foreigners." Ayame said, "I've heard that there are still people called wandering minstrels in Europe. I have a feeling that Rakugo players have something in common with these minstrels. Rakugo can be regarded as a one-man stage play having some comic components." Rakugo has a history of 300 years. The world of Rakugo was exclusively one for men until about a dozen years ago. Even today female Rakugo players total only ten. Ayame said, "Classic Rakugo stories have been written to be played by men. In many Rakugo stories, some characters are women, but the women are made to be played by men. When I play such a woman in Rakugo, first I become a man, and then the man plays the women. The process is very complicated." She was invited to join a study group for young Rakugo players at the time when she was beginning to feel she was too slow in learning the skills of Rakugo. In this study group, she first attempted a story which she wrote. No man appears in the story titled "Glamorous Maidens of Naniwa (Osaka)." Ayame said, "I was quite relaxed while I was playing this story. It moved the laughter of my audience well. I felt my Rakugo was a success. 'This is it!' I said in my mind." Students, office workers, housewives, saleswomen, detectives, and women of many other categories are described in the Rakugo stories which she has written. She mocks them exhaustively with comical exaggeration of their characteristic qualities. Women in her audience are also mocked in the stories which she performs. While they laugh at their faults and comicalness reflected in her performance, they recognize, accept, and confirm themselves or their other self through her performance. The attitudes of these women show that Japanese women have matured. "Absorbed in Rakugo, I wished to become a Rakugo player when I was a high school student," Ayame said. She followed a Rakugo player whom she admired wherever he perfomed and became a pupil at his private Rakugo school when she was eighteen. Rakugo attracts her very much. What is the Rakugo like? Ayame said, "In Japan, I heard, at first nobody used to sit in the same way as we sit now. People used to sit with legs crossed with each other or with one leg placed as if ready to stand. In the Edo era, they began to sit in the same way as we sit. Rakugo was created because people began to sit in this way." "If a standing storyteller pretends he or she is running or walking by stamping or shaking hands to describe a person who is walking or running, it is too obvious to deceive the audience. They can perceive the mechanism. In the case of Rakugo, players are kneeling while they are perfoming, they have to play a running person, for example, only with the upper half of the body. The restriction affords them freedom of expression. Thus, they can produce the world of a story or even the space of one over a 60-centimeter square cushion. This attracts me." Ayame has also participated in a news program on TV as a commentator. She said, "This year, I wish to live overseas for at least three months and test my Rakugo to see whether they can be accepted outside Japan." While she has not yet decided where she will go,if you see her on a street corner in your country, please say "Hello" to encourage her. Interviewed by Haneko Inoue * In Rakugo, performers use their teacher's name as part of their stage name and select a name to identify themselves. Ayame, in other words, is the name she selected to identify herself as a performer. Page Top Copyright (C) 2007 DawnCenter. All Rights Reserved.