The Chrysanthemum and the Fish by Howard Hebbitt (Kodansha)

Trying to understand the humor of a country whose language you don’t share can be close to impossible. Even if you have studied the language for years, the use of slang, puns, and plays on words may be hard to understand but Howard Hibbett has decided to take on this monstrous task by giving us a history lesson in Japanese Humor going all the way back to the seventh century and working his way up to the Tokugawa Era in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Arthur Koestler, who wrote about humor in the Encyclopaedia Britannica said, “the humour of the Japanese is astonishingly mild and poetic, “like weak, mint-flavoured tea.” In contrast to what Koestler said, Hibbet shows how Japanese humor can be just as ribald and funny as any other nations in his book The Chrysanthemum and the Fish.

Hibbett begins his treatise by talking about “cheerful vulgarity” from an early episode in the Kojiki which translates to “An Account of Ancient Matters”. It is cited as Japan’s oldest literary work and includes stories, myths, legends, songs, oral traditions and more. One of the earliest episodes of laughter and humor is related in “Amaterasu and the Cave”

Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, has a quarrel with her younger brother Susano’o and hides herself in a cave thus depriving the world of light and plunging it into darkness. It was Ama-no-Uzume, the Goddess of Mirth who was able to attract her out of the cave. She did this by turning over a tub and started dancing on it and tearing off her clothes in front of the other kami (deities) who laughed so loud that Amaterasu was drawn out of her cave. Hibbett makes the argument that this episode “illustrates the link between laughter, religion, and regeneration.”

Hibbett continues to inform us of the evolution of humor from the Kojiki to the early humor in rural villages which are said to be “uninhibitedly coarse”. “Fleas, farts, barnyard sex, and other inelegant themes are among the usual topics of these artless stories.” The village humor would be akin to the American “dirty jokes”. 

The myths and humorous stories would give rise to rakugo in the 9th and 10th centuries. Rakugo is a form of verbal entertainment which was invented by monks to make their sermons more fun and appealing. A rakugoka, a lone storyteller sits on a cushion and relates a long and comical story between two or more characters using only the tone and pitch of his voice and a slight turn of his head to depict the differences in who’s speaking.

The Edo Era would introduce gesaku, a term used for “playful writing” and many of the books originated in the Yoshiwara District, the Pleasure Quarters during this time.The books satirized brothel society often making fun of the samurai who would frequent the area. Also spawning from the Yoshiwara District were these witty adult comic books called kibyoshi or “yellowbacks”. “Yellowbacks combined text and illustrations in almost equal proportion - to satirize the manners and morals of the day.”

Japanese humor is still alive and well in the 21st century. Many Japanese comedians have been able to translate their jokes and stories into English and have performed abroad without embarrassment. Even if some things get lost in translation, the comedians can laugh off the misunderstandings. As the old English proverb goes, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you.” ~Ernie Hoyt