Tenshiki in Akane-banashi: The Rakugo Piece That Won Over Akane's Strict Teacher

Tenshiki is a classic piece of rakugo, the traditional Japanese art of comic storytelling. Running only about ten minutes, it is known as one of the zenza-banashi, the short opening pieces performed by junior storytellers.

In Akane-banashi, the piece appears in the scene where Akane's homeroom teacher, Ms. Iwashimizu, watches live rakugo for the first time. First convinced that Akane’s dream of becoming a rakugoka was no more than a passing admiration, she comes to understand her seriousness and skill in just ten minutes on stage, and ends up cheering her on.

Ozaki, a classmate who had been helping her practice, also feels how much Akane has grown as he watches her perform. It is a scene that makes you look forward to her future.

The Story of Tenshiki

This story is a comedy about the trouble that comes from pretending to know something you don't.

One day, the head priest of a temple falls ill and is visited by a doctor making a house call, who asks whether he has any tenshiki. The priest has no idea what tenshiki is, but, embarrassed to admit his ignorance, he simply replies, “No, we don’t have any,” and avoids the issue.

The Young Acolyte’s Search for “Tenshiki”

After the doctor leaves, the priest summons his young acolyte, a boy training at the temple, and fishes to find out whether he knows what tenshiki is. But the acolyte does not know either. "I could tell you," the priest says, "but that would do you no good." So he orders the boy to fetch his medicine from the doctor's house and, while he is out, to borrow some tenshiki from the neighbors.

The boy asks all sorts of people, but none of them actually know what it is. They all pretend to, then make excuses for why they cannot lend any. When the boy reaches the doctor's house and asks what it means, the doctor explains, "Tenshiki is written with characters meaning to move the ki and let it escape. In other words, it means a fart. I asked whether the priest has had any to see how his bowels were working."

The word tenshiki is a medical term that appears in the classical Chinese medical text Shōkanron. Its characters break down as ten, to turn, shi, to lose, and ki, the gas in the intestines. It describes that gas turning and leaving the body, in other words flatulence. By checking whether there was any tenshiki, the doctor could tell whether the patient's bowels were working properly.

The Acolyte's Revenge and the Punchline

Realizing that the self-important priest has no idea what tenshiki really is, the boy goes back to the temple and lies, telling him that tenshiki means a sakazuki, a cup used for drinking sake. Pleased, the priest declares that from now on he will show guests his prized tenshiki, writing it with different characters that read the same but mean drinking vessel, and tells the boy to set the cup out.

Later, the doctor visits again. When the priest announces, "I had some tenshiki after all," and the doctor replies, "That's good to hear," the priest astonishes him by offering to show off his prized tenshiki. The acolyte, the only one in on the secret, holds back his laughter as he carries in the box with the sake cup and lifts the lid to reveal it.

Reading the doctor's reaction, the priest realizes he has been duped and scolds the boy. "Have you no shame, deceiving people like that?" he snaps. The boy's reply, "Oh, it doesn't bother me in the least," is the punchline, or sage, of the piece. In Japanese he says, “he demo arimasen”, which literally means "it isn't even a fart," a pun referring to tenshiki.

Known For its Many Variations on the Punchline

In the Kamigata style of Osaka and Kyoto, the doctor sometimes asks whether temples really call a sake cup a tenshiki, and the priest insists they have for ages. Asked exactly how far back, he caps the story with a pun, replying, "Since the Nara and Heian periods." In Japanese the two era names echo onara, meaning a fart, and he, another word for the same thing.

There are other endings too. In one, when the doctor asks why a sake cup would be called tenshiki, the priest says it is because they go buu-buu, a fart sound, when you stack them. In another, the priest, learning the boy has fooled him, grumbles that no wonder it seemed like such a stinky business, since in Japanese a "stinky story" (kusai hanashi) means a shady one. In yet another, he jokes that both need tsumami, since sake goes with tsumami (little snacks eaten with alcohol), while a fart makes you pinch (tsumamu) your nose.

What Makes Tenshiki Fun

The charm of this piece is the comedy of a respected elder who, dreading embarrassment, bluffs that he knows and ends up fooled by a young boy.

Because the doctor uses a technical term so offhandedly, the bluffing spreads in a chain, from the priest to everyone in town. It is a story that laughs at a familiar human flaw, the urge to save face instead of admitting you do not know. The fun comes from how the performer makes the audience laugh at all these people bluffing to wriggle out of an awkward spot.

How the performer plays the lying boy who gets the better of the priest is another spot where real skill shows. It captures a wonderful little relationship, the acolyte turning the tables on a priest who is always bossing him around.

Watch Tenshiki for Yourself

This is the Tenshiki that Akane performs in the anime Akane-banashi.

This is Tenshiki performed by Yanagiya Kyōtarō.

This is a children's version of Tenshiki performed by Katsura Fukumaru.