San'yūtei Enchō

Sanyutei Encho I (初代 三遊亭 圓朝(円朝)) was a Japanese author and rakugo performer of the late Edo and early Meiji eras. He was the founder and head of the Sanyuu school of rakugo, and is considered a pioneer of the rakugo revival.

Notable works of his include Japanese horror ("kaidan") classics: Kaidan botan dōrō (based on Botan Dōrō (牡丹灯籠), and Shinkei Kasane ga fuchi (on which many Japanese horror films such as Kaidan Kasane-ga-fuchi are based).

Career
As a rakugoka, San'yūtei Enchō differed from the predominantly comedic style of storytelling of his predecessors in favor of a more serious approach, his school coming closer to Kōdan in methodology. In addition to this, his school worked to implement use of subtle background instrumentation and altered stage lighting to accompany his ghost stories, a trend which would become standard today. One of his most well known instances of such would be during performances of Shinkei Kasane ga fuchi.

Some of San'yūtei Enchō's peers would at times work to undermine his performances by performing their own versions beforehand of stories he was expected to, thus seeing to hinder the impact his might have. San'yūtei Enshō would act as one such rival. Despite this, he felt as though the manner in which he told stories could not be replicated by anyone else, bearing many traits unique to himself. In addition, he would work to create many new pieces of his own that nobody had seen before.