Subject	Art objects, Japanese
	Japanese language
	Theater–Asia
	Short stories, Japanese
Category	1. Settlement
Author	Kairakutei, Burakku
	Black, Henry
Place Of Publication	Tokyo
Place	Tokyo
Keywords	theatre
Current Holder	State Library of South Australia
Period Of Reference	1891/1891
Series Number	829.3 K13
Item Number	b3190236
Access Rights	Digitised
Rights	Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.
Country Of Origin	Japan
Language	Japanese
Description From Source	Description/Quantity 119 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm. Description Born in 1858 in North Adelaide, Henry Black moved with his family to Japan at aged seven where his father had become editor of an English-language newspaper in Yokohama. While it was expected that he would follow the path of his family into ‘respectable’ business he decided upon another path. Under the professional name of Kairakutei Burakku Black, fluent in Japanese, became a rakugoka 落語家, a professional storyteller who enthralled audiences with his adaptations of stories from the novels of Charles Dickens and Mary Braddon amongst others, as well as detective stories. He also acted in kabuki roles, made some of the first voice recordings in Japan, managed an orchestra, was a magician and hypnotist, and a teacher of English. He married so he could become a Japanese citizen, was a member of the pro-democracy movement, drank heavily, went into debt as the vagaries of a theatrical life affected his income, lived with his male partner, and was shunned by his family. When he died in 1923 in Tokyo his sister quickly arranged his burial in the Foreigners’ Cemetery in Yokohama. History/biography Sokkibon (Stenographic book) Published versions of Henry Black’s narrations were interspersed with explanations of western customs for the Japanese audience, some of the characters given Japanese names, and other aspects in the story are put in to a Japanese context for the audience. Shachu no Dokubari [̀The poisoned pin in the stagecoach] is a Victorian style detective mystery with Japanese characters about the mysterious death of a woman on a stagecoach. In 14 parts it was adapted from the 1881 tale Le Crime de l’Omnibus by French mystery writer Fortuné du Boisgobey. The image is the front cover of the book.
Physical Format	Books