For my world theatre tradition, I chose to research Rakugo, a form of Japanese sit-down comedy theatre. Within Rakugo, there are two very distinctive styles with Kamigata rakugo (based in Osaka) and Edo rakugo (which is based in modern day Tokyo). Kamigata rakugo is a more theatrical art that takes influence from Kabuki theatre (theatre of singing and dancing) which originated in nearby Kyoto. For the purposes of my presentation, I chose to put a focus on Edo rakugo. The theatre convention that I chose to focus on was gesture and movement in relation to props. Rakugo performers (or rakugo-kas) traditionally only use two props on stage to tell their stories: the cloth napkin and the fan. While the fan is used to represent typically "harder" objects (such as a pen or a teapot), the napkin is typically molded into shapes to represent items such as a cup or a book. Pictured on the right is an image of me practicing with the props in order to gain familiarity with their different uses.