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“Power of Laughter”

Today’s story-teller is rakugo storyteller Bunchin Katsura who was picked up in the previous post.

Bunchin touched on the Great Hanshin Earthquake in his column. He says that his house was half destroyed in the earthquake in 1995.

In the worst-case situation, it was amazing to be alive. This experience made him want to have minimum belongings.

Speaking of durable things that design keep us interested, traditional designs are the best. So Bunchin bought famous craftsman’s clothes and tabi socks. Bunchin says that the product’s quality represents a good deal of effort.

Coming back to the subject, he took a family photo with their house demolished in the earthquake for a background. They are smiling in the photo.

Bunchin says, “We could not get by without smiling. When you reach a nadir, laughter comes. That is healing power.”

When he went to the theater after the earthquake, audience was there to see his performance.

Making audience laugh helped him to nurse his soul.

He thinks it is necessary to laugh especially when you have a lot of anxiety.

Bunchin says, “My dream is to be active in storytelling until the last minute of the last day. I am a rakugo storyteller in all my natural. Even if I start making mistakes and I can no longer speak, I would make people laugh by just saying, ‘I am 100 years old.’ I, myself, would like to be a gag line.”

The NIKKEI 02/19/2010 by Bunchin Katsura (rakugo storyteller)

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