Living Between Laughs: Kokontei Shinsou and Memories of Defeat (before and after the Showa War)

Living Between Laughs: Kokontei Shinsou and Memories of Defeat (before and after the Showa War)

Shinsei Kokontei (5th generation) was a rakugo storyteller of rare distinction who survived the turbulent period from the Meiji Era to the Showa Era with his unprecedented storytelling ability. He was not a smooth storyteller, and his stories were always off-track and digressions. Nevertheless, his rakugo stories are always filled with laughter as well as a sense of human folly and sadness. The rakugo he told in the aftermath of the war was not just an art form. It had the power to speak for those who had no words in the chaos.

In "Kaen Daiko," a junk dealer who knows nothing gets rich on a taiko drum he happens to have in his possession. His exchange with his devious wife depicts the wisdom and bravado of the common people who survived the turmoil of the times. In "The Camel," violence and laughter mingle with the earnestness of people living at the bottom of society. The characters he portrays are all somewhat out of character, yet somehow lovable.

In his late performance after recovering from a stroke, he continued his storytelling while muttering, "I'm done for," which shows a human achievement that transcends the framework of art. His belief that imperfection was the core of his art, and that there was truth in his imperfection, was in fact in the air. Shinsou was a storyteller who trapped the complexity of life in his laughter, and a living witness to the memories and emotions of the postwar era.