Who Is Hachigoro (Hachi) (Hacchan)?
The lovable scatterbrain of the tenement row
Hachigorō
Hachigoro is a townsman living in a tenement row (nagaya) who appears again and again in classic rakugo, affectionately known as "Hacchan." Hasty and quick to jump to conclusions but impossible to dislike, he is the very model of an Edo-born commoner. Rather than one specific person, he is a familiar stock character whose name is used in many stories.
In Sokotsu Nagaya, he visits the Kannon temple in Asakusa, finds a man who has died by the roadside, and becomes convinced it is Kumagoro from his own tenement. Even while saying "I saw him just this morning," he insists "he's so scatterbrained he hasn't noticed he's dead," and causes an uproar by bringing Kumagoro himself to the scene. In Konnyaku Mondo, down on his luck in Edo, he turns to Rokubei the konnyaku maker and becomes the stand-in priest of an empty temple without being able to read a single sutra. In Manju Kowai, he leads the group of friends trying to teach the boastful man a lesson.
Episodes featuring this character3
NEWEpisode 1
He Fears NothingExcept Sweet Buns — Manju Kowai (Scared of Sweet Buns)
Episode 1 of the series. Tough-talking Matsu swears nothing scares him, until his tenement pals corner him and he turns pale: "Truth is... sweet buns terrify me." To teach him a lesson, they pile a mountain of buns by his pillow. But Matsu screams "So scary!" and eats every last one.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 2
The Man Who Claimed His Own CorpseSokotsu Nagaya (The Scatterbrains' Row)
Episode 2 of RAKUGO: Japan's Comic Tales. Hasty Hachi finds a man who died in the street at Asakusa and decides it's his best friend and next-door neighbor, Kuma. When someone points out the obvious ("But you saw him this morning!"), Hachi just steamrolls right past it. He drags Kuma himself over to collect "his own body." Then Kuma, sobbing as he hugs the corpse, hits a question nobody can answer.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 5
He Won a Zen Duel With Hand Signs AloneKonnyaku Mondo
Episode 5 of RAKUGO: Japan's Comic Tales. Rokubei the Konnyaku Maker sits in for Hachi, a fake monk who's in way over his head, at a high-stakes debate of faith. Without saying a single word, Rokubei gets a traveling monk to bow down in defeat using nothing but gestures. The catch? Rokubei thought the whole time that they were haggling over the price of konnyaku.
19 pages