Strolling in the forest of books (22): A legendary storyteller: Baba Bunko and his writings (1)

摘要

Kodan is one of Japan’s oral traditions of storytelling.Unlike rakugo , however, which is comic storytelling, thesubject matter of kodan includes dramatic readings of warchronicles such as Taiheiki (Chronicle of Great Peace).Although originally the purview of aristocrats, publicperformances of what was then called koshaku becamepopular during the early Edo era in the 16th century andreached a zenith during the Meiji era in the 19th century,which was when the name kodan became firmlyestablished.