“I’ll Create My Own Precedents”: Female Rakugo Performers on Tokyo’s Yose Stages

Abstract

Rakugo is a Japanese stage art originating in the seventeenth century, and was initially popular with the lower classes. For the majority of its history, rakugo stories have been performed by men for (mostly) male audiences. The misogynistic and/or male-centered characters of the stories are not the only obstacle female performers are faced with; they also have to confront the male-centered community and audience expectations. With few senior female master-performers, there is a lack of role models and younger female performers have to find strategies regarding their portfolio, voice production, stage appearance and modification of stories. This chapter looks at the history of female performers and explores the current state on Tokyo’s rakugo stage also providing a valuable analysis of one of the few Japanese stage arts which allows women to perform on its main stages.