was a Japanese

rakugo is a form of ''yose'', which is itself a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone sits on a raised platform, a . Using only a and a as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long ...

comedian known for performing on the '' Shōten''

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

show on

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

. Born , he used Enraku as his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

. He was known as a master of the Japanese comic art of rakugo, in which a single

performer The performing arts are The arts, arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art object ...

or storyteller appears on

stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

and tells comedic stories to the audience. While a student at

Aoyama Gakuin University is a private Christian university in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Originally established in 1874 by missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was reconfigured in its current form in 1949 as part of Aoyama Gakuin. Aoyama Gakuin Universit ...

, he began studying rakugo under

San'yūtei Enraku V was a Japanese rakugo comedian best known for Master of Ceremonies, hosting the ''Shōten'' comedy show on Nippon TV. His comedic career spanned several decades. He was born and at the time used Enraku as his stage name. He was known using t ...

. His first stage name was , until he inherited his teacher's name in March 2010. Enraku was a producer of the Hakata Tenjin Rakugo Matsuri, a rakugo festival held in

Fukuoka city is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

from 2007. On January 25, 2022, Enraku's agency announced that he suffered from a

cerebral infarction A cerebral infarction is the pathologic process that results in an area of necrotic tissue in the brain (cerebral infarct). It is caused by disrupted blood supply ( ischemia) and restricted oxygen supply ( hypoxia), most commonly due to thromboemb ...

, further complicated by his ongoing treatment for

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

. After his hospitalization, rakugo artists who had a close relationship with Enraku served as guests on Shōten. He died on September 30, 2022, at the age of 72.落語家の三遊亭円楽さん　肺がんで死去、72歳　1月脳梗塞発症、8月高座復帰果たすも…
Retrieved 30 September 2022.

References

1950 births 2022 deaths Rakugoka Aoyama Gakuin University alumni {{Japan-bio-stub