Page:Sketches of Tokyo Life (1895).djvu/29

Rh halls in one evening. A run at these halls lasts a fortnight so that there are two runs every month. As thus the programme at a hall is changed twice a month and most story-tellers visit two or more halls every evening, their engagement becomes a very complicated affair, which story-tellers cannot settle for themselves without interfering with each other's interests; and the entire arrangement of their engagement and hours of appearance at the halls is left in the hands of a specialist, who receives a small recompense from every story-teller whose services are thus allotted. This specialist’s income is materially augmented by douceurs from third or fourth rate men who are naturally anxious to join a public favourite’s company. It is only first-rate story-tellers who can make their own arrangements without consulting him.

Besides his receipts from the halls, a popular story-teller has a fair income from the munificence of his patrons, who call him for amusement to their houses, or more often to tea-houses. Indeed, the degree of his popularity with the general public may be fairly gauged by the frequency with which lie is engaged for such private entertainments. The supernumerary’s income from the halls is insufficient to keep body and soul together; but he has often another calling or another source of revenue, so that he is not totally dependent for livelihood on the halls to which he appears to be drawn by sheer love of hearing his own voice. We knew a jinrikisha-man, who was in daytime harnessed to his vehicle and in the evening took to the story-tellers’ dais as a relaxation from his severe labours.

The rakugoka’s répertoire is not extensive. His stock stories do not far exceed a score which he trots out again and again with slight variations as he knows that however hackneyed his jokes may be, his audience are never too critical nor chary of laughter. Since he appears only for a fortnight at any single hall, which he may not revisit for months or even years, it is really enough for him to be