Description
The speaker is in the middle of the audience, and his purpose is to stimulate the general hilarity with tone and limited, yet specific body gestures. The monologue always ends with a narrative stunt known as ochi (落ち?, lit. "fall") or sage (下げ?, lit. "lowering"), consisting of a sudden interruption of the wordplay flow. Twelve kinds of ochi are codified and recognized, with more complex variations having evolved through time from the more basic forms.
Early rakugo has developed into various styles, including the shibaibanashi (芝居噺?, theatre discourses), the ongyokubanashi (音曲噺?, musical discourses), the kaidanbanashi (see kaidan (怪談噺?, ghost discourses)), and ninjōbanashi (人情噺?, sentimental discourses). In many of these forms the ochi, which is essential to the original rakugo, is absent.
Rakugo has been described as "a sitcom with one person playing all the parts" by Noriko Watanabe, assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature at Baruch College.
Read more about this topic: Rakugo
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