Background knowledge

[mbarker]

One of the amusing bits about the rakugo story on NHK is that Mitsuko says she's never been to rakugo or been interested in it, but whenever they bring up a story, she goes "oh, yeah, that one." I gather that there are about 300 classic rakugo stories, and most Japanese recognize them without much hinting. Sort of soaked in through the skin while growing up in Japan.

Which leaves me trying frantically to catch up, of course.

I mean, do you recognize "kono ike no inu?" Story of a pair of puppies who get abandoned. One gets taken in by someone and raised. Then later, as the bad dogs threaten a young dog in the street, here comes some strange dog to break up the fight and chase the bad dogs off. Who are you and why did you get into the fight? Why, I'm your long-lost brother!

Or how about today's little story? I'd call it boring and drunk in English. One person always says everything is boring, while the other  talks about going drinking. They challenge each other to not use their favorite phrase. And the end of the story is that one says boring, and offers to pay - at which point the other says I'm going drinking.

Or there's the title story - Chiritotechin. Apparently one man decides to show up another who always claims to have done everything before. So our hero carefully fills a designer package with rotten tofu, then offers it to the sophisticate, who says of course he has eaten Nagasaki chiritotechin before. "Oh, good, perhaps you'd like some now?" "Of course." He opens it, and makes a face at the smell. "You're crying." "Yes, really good chiritotechin makes your eyes water." He takes a bite, and makes faces while he eats and swallows. Then he says, "Oh, delicious!" At this point the hero says "You know, I've never tasted chiritotechin myself. How would you describe the flavor?" The sophisticate smacks his lips and says, "It tastes just like rotten tofu." And that's the end of the story.

They are threading these stories through the NHK drama, and usually provide a brief summary of the tale, so at least some Japanese must not recognize them off-hand. But Mitsuko, and some others I've talked with, seem surprised that I don't know the stories. About like admitting in the US that you don't know Mother Goose or similar stories that are part of the cultural heritage.

Ah, well, I needed more reading, right?

Comments

Re: You can buy Rakugo CDs

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

I've been looking at them, and the books, and the DVDs . . . maybe I'll just stick with what I can scrape up on the web. There's a bunch of stuff in Japanese, although that takes way too long for me to puzzle my way through. Kind of fun, in the perverse way of such puzzles, but . . .

I tend to be a written/visual person, which means CDs aren't quite as useful as they are to an auditory person.

Good idea, though. Maybe I'll go look at them again. Thanks!