San'yūtei Enchō

San'yūtei Enchō
Native name	初代 三遊亭 圓朝(円朝)
Born	Jirokichi Izubuchi (1839-05-13)May 13, 1839 Japan
Died	August 11, 1900(1900-08-11) (aged 61)
Occupation	Author and rakugo performer
Period	Late Edo and early Meiji
Notable works	Kaidan botan dōrō

Sanyutei Encho I (初代 三遊亭 圓朝(円朝), Shodai San'yūtei Enchō, born Jirokichi Izubuchi (出淵 次郎吉, Izubuchi Jirokichi)) May 13, 1839 – August 11, 1900 was a Japanese author and rakugo performer of the late Edo and early Meiji eras. He was the founder and head of the Sanyuu school [ja] of rakugo, and is considered a pioneer of the rakugo revival.

Notable works of his include Japanese horror ("kaidan") classics: Kaidan botan dōrō (based on Botan Dōrō (牡丹灯籠, The Peony Lantern), and Shinkei Kasane ga fuchi^[1] (on which many Japanese horror films such as Kaidan Kasane-ga-fuchi are based).

As a rakugoka, San'yūtei Enchō differed from the predominantly comedic style of storytelling of his predecessors in favor of a more serious approach, his school coming closer to Kōdan in methodology. In addition to this, his school worked to implement use of subtle background instrumentation and altered stage lighting to accompany his ghost stories, a trend which would become standard today. One of his most well known instances of such would be during performances of Shinkei Kasane ga fuchi [ja].

Some of San'yūtei Enchō's peers would at times work to undermine his performances by performing their own versions beforehand of stories he was expected to, thus seeing to hinder the impact his might have. San'yūtei Enshō [ja] would act as one such rival. Despite this, he felt as though the manner in which he told stories could not be replicated by anyone else, bearing many traits unique to himself. In addition, he would work to create many new pieces of his own that nobody had seen before.

• Texts of Encho's works at Aozora Bunko.
• San'yūtei Enchō at IMDb