Rōdoku Workshop

Lecture Information:
This event takes the form of an interactive performance workshop, led by Michiko Shirasaka, one of Japan’s best-known contemporary “readers” of Japanese literature and oral story-telling practitioners.

Organized by Fumiko Nazikian, director of Columbia’s Japanese language program, the workshop is designed to provide students of the Japanese language not only with a brief history of rōdoku, but also with an opportunity to present their own recitations in the rōdoku mode. Ms. Shirasaka will offer feedback and commentary to the student participants, and will also demonstrate her own vocal style.

The materials on which the reading performances will be based include both classical and modern Japanese literary works of renown.

Lecturer Information:
Born in Hokkaido, Ms. Shirasaka commenced her career as a narrator and voice actor by joining the NHK Broadcasting Drama Company in 1956. She has since performed in numerous radio dramas and TV programs in Japan. After leaving the Drama Company in 1999, Ms. Shirasaka began teaching Japanese book reading, or rōdoku, at NHK’s cultural classes. She established a reading group called Katari Kōbō with Ms. Ayako Fukuzawa, who was one of her students at the reading class. They hold reading workshops as well as reading performances of classic literature throughout Japan with the aim of promoting an appreciation of the Japanese language. She has recorded many rōdoku CDs, including readings of the classical tale Taketori Monogatari (The Bamboo Cutter), Shūhei Fujisawa’s period pieces, and Kuniko Mukōda’s novels.