Collaborating Across The Miles

Excerpt from the 30th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet for the Canary Rakugo Association

We are very fortunate to be living in the Age of Technology. Recent advancements in electronics and the internet have transformed the way we learn and connect. The internet and social media have played an important role in bringing people and their ideas together and in opening up a new world of opportunities for everyone involved.

I live in Los Angeles, and it was through social media that I met and befriended Kanariya Eishi, a member of the Kanariya family residing in New Zealand. Through my friendship with Eishi-san, I met the leader of the group of rakugo performers, Kanariya Eiraku, who resides in Tokyo. Through our exchanges on Twitter, I discovered that we both shared an interest not only in rakugo, but also in Ainu culture and the northern island of Sakhalin. I learned that Eiraku-san had family who once lived on the island and he himself had visited the island in the summer of 2014. After having published a book about the Pacific War, I had the ambition to publish a follow up book about Sakhalin (Karafuto). That is how Eiraku-san came to write the foreword for my book, Sakhalin: The Island of Unspoken Struggles.

As time went on, I had the opportunity to watch online English rakugo performances delivered by members of the Kanariya family. On occasion, these performances included other rakugo performers such as Sanyutei Koseinen. I suffer from an incurable condition known as rakugoholism and these performances adequately fed my addiction. In time, I wanted to share my passion for rakugo with the world, and I hit upon the idea of writing an introductory book about rakugo in English. I wanted to produce a useful everyday guide to rakugo for those individuals who had absolutely no idea what rakugo was all about. That is how Eiraku-san and I came to collaborate on Talking About Rakugo 1: The Japanese Art of Storytelling.

The book was so well-received, and we had such good reviews, we decided to collaborate on a second book. After all, I did have additional material that I was not able to include in the first book. On February 7, 2022, which happens to be Eiraku-san’s birthday, we released Talking About Rakugo 2: The Stories Behind the Storytellers.

Writing the rakugo books gave me ample opportunities to meet other members of the Kanariya rakugo family. In the first book, I had the pleasure of including interviews with not only Eiraku-san and Eishi-san, but Kanariya Ichirin-san was also featured. I enjoyed learning more about these talented performers and finding out what drew them to the rakugo stage. In the second book, I interviewed Koraku-san, Simon-san, and Usagi-san. Listening to their personal stories and earning their trust enough for them to let me share their stories in our books made me feel as though I was a part of the family. A non-performing member, but a member, nonetheless.

I became a member of the English Rakugo Association shortly after it was formed. I too share the association’s vision of perpetuating English rakugo all over the world. Rakugo is an infectious, entertaining art form that deserves to be enjoyed by everyone. We are so fortunate that a visionary like Katsura Shijaku existed. He did something that no other rakugo performer had ever attempted; he began translating and performing rakugo in English in 1983. We owe him an immeasurable debt of gratitude. Without Katsura Shijaku, those of us who are not fluent in Japanese would never be able to understand and enjoy rakugo. Without Katsura Shijaku, whose performance Eiraku-san happened to see at the Yurakucho Mullion Hall in Tokyo in 1990, the Kanariya English rakugo classes would not exist.

Like Shijaku and Eiraku, I would like to do my part to help English rakugo grow. Whether it is collaborating on rakugo stories, books, articles, or simply promoting English rakugo performances, I want to make my small contribution to the world of rakugo.

Happy anniversary! May your group continue to grow and succeed in the many years to come. It is my hope that when the time comes for existing members to step down, younger members will pick up the baton and carry the Kanariya family forward.