Yanagiya Kosanji is an edo style rakugo performer who often performs in Ikebukuro. Rakugo performers live a lifestyle embedded in their art, and Kosanji is no exception. Even after being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, he has continued to perform.

Kosanji often wears a black hakama to allow himself to disappear.  As a result, he hopes his storytelling will take center stage and allow the customers to see him as the character he is performing.

The idea of disappearing is not just in what he wears. When using his hand towel, with his insignia, he intentionally folds his hand towel so that it is somewhat ambiguous that it is his towel. He says that this is the “Edo style” of performing.

He was once told, “the best way to make people laugh is to not try to make them laugh” Instead, the important principle to follow is to tell the story as you are. Kosanji has pursued story telling as the study of himself as much as telling the story.

Being able to do Rakugo is the ability to see things from the very bottom. Therefore, you need to experience being at the lowest of the low. He credits his illness as giving him the ability to understand pain, gratitude, and being at the mercy of others. When asked why people need laughter in their life. “They just laugh.” “When we laugh we are all happy. We like ourselves when we are laughing.”

To Kosanjiro, laughter is not about getting people to laugh out loud. Instead, it is about delivering a genuine and heartfelt message to each person in the audience.