Kamishibai-shi : Storytelling Man
Rollover Jackanory. Step aside Punch & Judy. Pingmag has a wonderful piece up about Kamishibai-Shi, the Japanese tradition of street storytellers. It centres around an interview with 78 year old Tameharu Nagata, who has been a street storyteller for 50 years. Combining performance with illustrated tiles, the storyteller narrates the tale to groups of enraptured children
Inspiring early Manga illustrators, the artwork is beautiful and wonderfully surreal, as you can see from the images below. From the Klu-Klux-Clan member wearing a gasmask-infused hood, to the Blue and red-eyed cat menace, they are not only peculiar but strangely menacing.
I think its hard to underestimate the power of one-on-one storytelling. Although we have become accustomed to increasing sophistication in the structure of stories, an increased ability to realize fantastical imagery and instant access to an archive of thousands of tales, nothing can emulate or replace the storyteller. The storyteller within a story is quite common device in games and films as a way to absorb some of the endearing qualities of such a delivery, but it is seldom done well (usually as a voiceover or a character recounting earlier periods of their life). The only exception to this that comes to mind is Peter Falk’s excellent turn in The Princess Bride.
