【Ninth Round】We Ask Rakugo Storyteller Ms. Kikuchiyo Kokontei What Travel Will Look Like in 5 Years

The New Buds of Tourism, Exploring the Shape and Future of Tourism Five Years Ahead

Kikuchiyo Kokontei is a pioneer for women star performing rakugo storytellers. This is her message she wants to communicate using rakugo storytelling to the rest of us who will live the future.

This time we’re joined by Kikuchiyo Kokontei, a female rakugo storyteller who’s a star performer at the top of Edo rakugo. She’s a pioneer in the field and has performed rakugo in a wide variety of genres, in the Korean language and in sign language for classic rakugo storytelling. She’s also active as a boat pilot for NGO Peace Boat as well.

Ms. Kikuchiyo Kokontei

　
In Showa 59, Ms. Kikuchiyo Kokontei entered the Kokontei Engiku school for rakugo storytelling and was promoted to the first female star performer in Edo along with her senior member, Karuta Sanyutei in Heisei 5. Since then, she has performed in entertainment venues and halls, rakugo meetings, performed in sign language, the Korean language, performed new material, original material, essays and performed abroad such as South America where there is a lot of Japanese diaspora. She has acted as a director for the benevolent interview committee for inmates, teaching them how to talk at the Tokyo Detention House and aims to cover all correctional facilities in the country by performing rakugo storytelling at all of them. She works as a boat pilot for NGO Peace Boat and as a travel universal design advisor and special supporter. Her written works include I’m Professional Rakugo Storyteller Kikuchiyo Kokontei (Nihon Shuppan) and Taiken, Kodomomo Yose (Kaiseisha).
　

Travel in Rakugo and Viewing Modern Times with Rakugo

　
Explorer: Master Kikuchiyo, you’re the star female performer for Edo rakugo. We believe there weren’t any female rakugo performers at the time you became one. What inspired you to become a rakugo storyteller despite that situation?
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: When I was in university, I was invited to a research meeting about rakugo. That’s where I met rakugo and realized there’s nothing more interesting. I was interested in working in theater or as an announcer, but I had no talent, beauty or the courage to try and become those, so I gave up. I did have the guts though (laughs). Rakugo is different from theater and announcing is that anybody can become the main performer as long as you go up on the stage (the highest part of the stage where they perform). I’ll remember my lines and everybody will be looking at me. If those lines are boring, the audience won’t enjoy it either. If they find it funny, they’ll laugh. You can’t blame anybody when you fail, but when you succeed – it’s all because of your audience. I thought that was interesting, and even though I worked in an office, I decided on becoming a rakugo storyteller. At that time, people were telling me that it would be impossible for because I’m a woman, but I didn’t want to have any regrets and that’s why I became one. I’m glad I’m able to do this even now.
　
Explorer: This year you’ve been a rakugo storyteller for 40 years now. We believe you’ve encountered a lot of different stories as you’ve worked in the industry. What sort of stories about travel are there?
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: There are many stories about travel in rakugo. For example, there’s ooyamamairi. Mt. Oyama is a tourist attraction in Kanagawa prefecture, but it has been worshipped as a sacred mountain since antiquity. In the Edo period, there was an organization called the Oyama Kou. People in the house would collect money and go to Mt. Oyama for a pilgrimage. The land lord or the senior monk would take everyone. When many people would participate, such as ooyamamairi, people would argue or fight. Those stories would become a part of the rakugo storytelling. Hidari Jingoro was a man who carved the three monkeys at Nikko’s Toshogu shrine, but there was one time he wasn’t able to pay for lodging at his travel destination so he carved out a piece of art as payment instead.
　
Explorer: What sort of messages do you want to communicate and what sort of feelings do you want audiences to experience when telling these stories in travel?
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: I think audiences will like the idea of slowly walking and traveling. There’s the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage. You take a tour by riding a bus to see the sights quickly, but in the past people had to walk and spend days to see everything. The internet enables us to easily make reservations for lodging but that wasn’t possible in the Edo period. People traveled without know where they would stay for the night. My stories might show a way of travel that embraces a sense of excitement and thrill.
　
Explorer: When you perform rakugo, manzai or any classical theater at a public entertainment hall and talk about travel, do you have anything in mind that you want to communicate to the audience or anything you want them to feel?
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: This isn’t just limited to travel, but I definitely feel topics from 200 years are still relatable. I’ll be thinking, “that still exists,” or “those kinds of people still exist.” Rakugo has a role to connect the dots of the present and past and make people realize that. There aren’t many bad people that show up in a rakugo storytelling, only good people. They might be dumb, but they’re kind to their mom and dad. They don’t lie and are undisciplined. Current society says we have to be disciplined, but thinking back on it, it’s nice to have people who are just wholly honest and pure. Rakugo teaches a type of humanity that isn’t taught in schools.

　

Travel Connects People and Destinies

　
Explorer: We also heard you work as a boat pilot for NGO Peace Boat and have recently started it up again. What was the catalyst for you to embarks on Peace Boat?
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: That was destiny. Embark on a ride with Peace Boat and you’ll end up with lots of fate. I always think I come back with a treasure when I do. I’ll always do a rakugo class when I’m riding the boats for a long time. The classes are two hours long, and the night before I disembark from the ship, I’ll have a presentation for my students. The participants are both men and women, young and old – ages anywhere from 17 years old to 90 years old. There isn’t much time to practice so it’s a bit of a rigorous program (laughs). As a result of that though, the students start working together. Let me talk about the last treasure I received when I taught on board. There was a neglected student in the crowd and a student who stayed still in the corner. They didn’t really harmonize with the rest of the group during practice. After talking to them individually many times, they started to join in during practice and started getting along with their teams. When it came to time to present, they were able to do so wonderfully in front of 350 people. I was so touched by this. Miracles like that always happen every time. This is the reason why I can’t quit rakugo. My workshops that I carry out also allow me to become closer with the Peace Boat staff and I’ve been invited many times to perform for them. As a result, my work in Japan has decreased (laughs). I also talk to other boat pilots as well. I’ve met military commentators, musicians – people you would think someone who does rakugo wouldn’t ever meet, but I did. I think rakugo is amazing because those types of people enjoy it. That’s why they sometimes come to learn rakugo in their spare time.

　

As Time Shifts, Rakugo and The Charms of Travel That You Want to Communicate

　
Explorer: What do you want to change in rakugo in the future? What sort of things will naturally change?
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: There might be words that audiences aren’t familiar with. Changing those words to something they can understand, changing the manner of talking to something more modern, changing tools to something that exists today – these are things I do. As I tell my stories, audiences will react in a way that lets me know that they aren’t familiar with the words I’m saying. That’s why my words and interpretation of the story changes to fit the expectations and values of the audience. In addition, young rakugo storytellers are telling new stories and audience values are changing as well. They’ll accept different stories and more people have started to empathize with what I have to say. These changes are not just with the speaker, but also the audience – the listeners. They’ll one other aspect to change in rakugo.
　
Explorer: As you’ve explained, rakugo has undergone many changes and is undergoing many changes. Modern times is home to many types of entertainment, but do you feel like people should listen to rakugo even more so it’s the present time?
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: Rakugo requires the audience to look, listen and imagine otherwise they won’t get it even if the storyteller is doing their best to relay the story. However, I feel children these days don’t have enough imagination anymore. When I thought about this, I think it’s because there are a lot of things we understand simply by looking these days. We understand things even without thinking when we watch TV. In contrast, rakugo requires the listener to delve into the story and imagine the characters and the setting. Therefore, the speaker uses their skills to stoke the listeners’ imaginations. The listeners will take in the story in their own ways and everyone will do their part to invoke imaginations which I believe to be important. That’s why I think people should listen to rakugo.
　
Explorer: Recently people have become satisfied with looking at pictures of travel on social media but not actually going traveling themselves. We feel that there are things you’d understand if you went there yourself. Listening to what you have said, we believe it’s necessary to nurture your imagination with actual experience.
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: The first Peace Boat I rode was on the way to North Korea. I thought it was going to be a scary country as it’s reported in the news. But a fellow representative at the time told me, “Seeing is believing. So take a look yourself.” That’s when I decided to go. When I got there, people received me so warmly. It was a complete opposite to what I had imagined prior to getting on that boat. Of course, people might feel differently from me, but I realized you have to go and see things for yourself. I’m sure there are things you will realize then.
　
Explorer: That imagination we talked about is common point between rakugo and traveling. Are there any other common points between these two?
　
Ms. Kikuchiyo: I think they both show a sense of fun that only the person experiencing it can feel. Only the person who’s telling the story can understand the happiness they get when their audience enjoys their performance in rakugo. The audience also enjoys the stories in their own way. When you travel in a group, everyone in that group will enjoy the destination in their own way. Rakugo storytellers won’t decide on a topic until the actual performance in the entertainment halls. You won’t be able to use your story or beginning anecdote if it is the same as someone else’s. That’s why you have to go on stage, look at your audience, and tell your story – otherwise you won’t know their reaction. That’s rakugo. Likewise, you have to go to the destination to truly understand it. That’s what rakugo and travel have in common.

　

The “Bud” We Found in this Exploration

For 40 years, Ms. Kikuchiyo has entertained her audience with laughter and memories through rakugo and various activities. We learned that even though times have changed, there are still some important fundamentals we shouldn’t miss. In the future, we may be able to travel to space and travel itself may change in its form and scale, but the fundamentals of travel should remain the same. However, understanding those fundamentals will depend on the person and how they see it. Think about what travel is to you, what it means to you, and imagine what sort of journey you want to take yourself on. (TOY)