Ginkgo monk - Icho Osho

...A type of entertainment at a vaudeville hall. Usually, the performer recites stories of heroism, vendettas, political debates, and true stories by himself, at a table called a shakudai, while tapping a folding fan. The traditional name for this type of performance before the Meiji period was "koshaku." Originally, koshaku meant lecturing on classic texts with commentary, and the terms koshaku and kodan appear frequently in documents related to Buddhism in the Middle Ages. Strictly speaking, there was a distinction between koshaku and kodan, but in the art of storytelling, they are used synonymously, and kodan has become more common since the modern era. Although sutra lectures are mainly performed in Buddhism, they were also performed in Confucianism and Shintoism.

*Some of the terminology that refers to "Ginkgo Priest" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…寄席演芸の一種。ふつう，武勇伝，仇討（あだうち），政談，実録のたぐいを，釈台と呼ばれる机を前に張扇をたたきながら，ひとりで口演する。〈講釈〉というのが明治以前の伝統的な呼称。もともと講釈とは典籍を評釈して講義することで，講釈･講談の用語は中世の仏教関係の文献に頻出する。講釈と講談は厳密にいえば区別があったが，話芸のうえでは同義に用いられ，近代以降は講談が一般的になった。経典講釈は仏教が主であるが，儒教や神道でも行われていた。…

※「銀杏和尚」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報