Kairakutei Black

Kanariya Eiraku 鹿鳴家英楽 (Sudo Tatsuya) (Photo: centre) paid tribute to Henry Black during a performance of English-language rakugo at the Sydney Japan Foundation on Saturday 7 March (2020). During the tribute Eiraku narrated Tameshi-zake試し酒 [test sake], one of the tales… Read moreHenry Black commemorated in Sydney performance

There’s a new source of information about the resurgence of interest in Henry Black. The details are in a Masters thesis by Toshiki (Toshi) Asakura-Ward. In his abstract, Toshi explains that although Henry Black “achieved a degree of fame during… Read moreNewly published thesis explains recent popularity of Henry Black

I’ve been reading more about how stenography helped bring modernity to Japan in the Meiji era. The details are in Seth Jacobowitz’s book, Writing Technology in Meiji Japan – a Media History of Modern Japanese Literature and Visual Culture. The… Read moreThe advent of stenographic books

A Tokyo dealer in rare and antique books, has produced an amazing catalogue of publications, many of them devoted to sokkibon (stenographic book) versions of Henry Black’s narrated tales. The catalogue is by Kagerou Bunko for the Melbourne Rare Book… Read moreRare books by Henry Black go on sale

I was in Rome in February (2018) as a guest speaker at “Realms of Words”, a symposium hosted by the Japanese Department at Istituto italiano di Studi Orientali at Sapienza University. The symposium focused on how ideas are transmitted across… Read moreHenry gets a mention in Rome

Met up with Toshiki (Toshi) Asakura-Ward on 27 Oct (2017) for a chat at Sydney’s Town Hall Espresso about our mutual interest in the Japan-Australia relationship. Toshi, who has been studying at Western Sydney University, has just submitted for examination… Read moreResearching the revival of interest in Henry

My first experience of rakugo was back in 1973 when I was staying with the Kakehashi family in Tokyo’s Sengawa. Mr Kakehashi loved showing me the best of Japanese culture, so one day he took me and my visiting parents… Read moreLike a classical music performance

JAPANESE humour studies has lost one of its greatest researchers, Professor Miyoko Sasaki. Together with her long-time colleague Heinz Morioka, Prof. Sasaki wrote Rakugo – the Popular Narrative Art of Japan (Harvard East Asian Monographs, 138, Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard … Read moreYes, we have a sense of humour – Prof. Miyoko Sasaki

TODAY I was at St Augustine’s Anglican Church to hear the rakugoka, Tatekawa Koshira, crack lots of jokes and puns! A big audience belly-laughed through his stories, especially the classic tale Shinigami [The God of Death].