Background
Shikano Buzaemon was born in 1649 in Osaka, Japan.
鹿野 武左衛門
Shikano Buzaemon was born in 1649 in Osaka, Japan.
Shikano was a lacquer ware maker in Tokyo before he became a professional rakugo reciter at the age of 30. The first roadside storyteller in Tokyo, he built a shanty in Nakabashi Square, a public resort in Tokyo, and told his stories enlivened with gesticulations, charging six mon as admission fee.
In 1673, Buzaemon was arrested by Shogunate police on a charge of spreading wild rumors in connection with an epidemic then prevailing and was exiled to Qshima Island. After six years on the island, he was brought back to Tokyo in 1699 and died four months later.