This is a BBC podcast. You can get all our podcasts and our terms of use at BBCworldservice.com slash

podcasts. This is a Sui Hirota, an old Rakugo theater.

This is Sui Hirote, an old Rakugo theatre close to Tokyo's busy

Shinjuku station. The art of Rakugo, or

storytelling, has changed little over the centuries. Attending

Rakugo performance here is like stepping back in town. the of stand-up comedy, so instead the comedian sit on a cushion and tells a

comical story. The rakuoka or comedian sits on his knees wearing traditional kimono and performs entertaining dialogues between characters,

taking on the different voices, expressions and mannerisms of each character.

The only props are a fan and a tenugui, a piece of cloth. I am Cheekobayashi and in this BBC World Service program I will be looking

at the ancient Japanese comic storytelling art of Rakugo and asking whether it can be exported to other countries

or whether too much is simply lost in translation.

In Rakug Google you have to almost close your eyes and imagine what's happening in a story.

So if I say, okay, oh look, there's a beautiful woman, then you have to imagine the beautiful

woman in your mind.

Traditionally, there were no female rakuoka or performance, and until 50 years ago ago no women were even allowed to watch the performances.

Now thanks to Kimi Oshima that's changing fast.

She's determined to translate and export this ancient art of laughter to

English-speaking audiences. So far Kimie has translated several Rakugo stories and performed in a number of countries.

Every time I come out and sit on a cushion and say,

da cuckoo is Japanese sit-down comedy.

And it's already a joke to them.

Japanese and comedy, those two words just do not go together.

...