Artist Diane Kichijutsu

Since 1990, Diane Kichijitsu has fallen in love with Rakugo for 17 years out of the past 25 years living and working in Japan. During that time, her constant efforts to translate this genre from Japanese version into the English one without changing its Japanese identity have been rewarded.

Diana Kichijitsu introduced Rakugo to VHV members.

The performance only for Volunteer House Vietnam.

On this visit to Vietnam, her first show was exclusively for Volunteer House Vietnam. During three hours, Artist Diane summarized briefly and concisely about the history of this genre and gave a short hilarious performance.

After the show, Artist Diane enthusiastically taught VHV members and invited some of them to take on some challenges. In addition to her talents of taking wide range of roles and diversifying facial expressions, Ms. Diane also gave detailed instructions which helped many VHV members succeed in performing excerpt from her comedy.

Besides, Artist Diane brought VHV members a surprise, it was a “laughter yoga” session. Thirty minutes of laughter yoga seemed to refresh all the attendees magically.

Hai Dang challenged himself to take performance of a comedy’s excerpt.

The show finished but laughter remained sounding. Seemingly, it still echoes in our mind.

Some information about Rakugo .

Rakugo is a form of Japanese traditional entertainment. Different from stand-up comedy, Rakugo only requires the performer to sit on the stage and act as a soloist, using a few tools such as sensu (a paper fan) and tenugui (a handkerchief). The artist performs the act and she or he may play two or even three roles in a drama.

Most of Rakugo’s stories are performed in Japanese. However, Artist Diane Kichijitsu’s success has proved that the idea of translating Rakugo into English to make it more popular is not an impossible task.

                                                                                    Do Nguyen Linh Thy