Light-hearted tales - light-hearted tales

...The storyteller uses fans and hand towels as props, and omits the narrative language of kodan and rokyoku (rakugo), and develops the story through dialogue and actions. At first, it was simply called "hanashi," and this expression remains today in expressions such as "going to listen to a story" and "storyteller." However, after the Tenna and Jokyo periods (1681-88), it was called "karukuchi" or "karukuchi banashi," mainly in the Kamigata region. This "karukuchi" period, which is the Kamigata term, ended around the Meiwa and An'ei periods (1764-81), when Kamigata literature was in decline, and the center of literature moved mainly to Edo, and in the Edo short story period, it came to be called "otoshi banashi." The character "rakugo" began to be used during the Tenmei period (1781-89), but it was not pronounced "rakugo" but was called "otoshibanashi."

*Some of the terminology explanations that refer to "light-hearted ramblings" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…演出法は，落語家が扇子と手ぬぐいを小道具に使用し，講談や浪曲(浪花節)のような叙述のことばを省略して，会話と動作によってはなしを展開する。はじめは，単に〈はなし〉といわれ，この言いかたは，現在も〈はなしを聴きに行く〉とか，〈はなし家〉とかいうように残っているが，天和･貞享(1681‐88)以後は，上方を中心に，〈軽口（かるくち）〉〈軽口ばなし〉などと呼ばれ，この上方的呼称である〈軽口〉時代が，上方文学の衰退期である明和･安永(1764‐81)ごろで終わり，文学の中心が主として江戸に移って，江戸小咄時代になると，もっぱら〈落（おと）し咄〉というようになった。〈落語〉という字が使用されはじめたのは，天明(1781‐89)からだが，〈らくご〉とは読まず，〈おとしばなし〉と呼んでいた。…

※「軽口ばなし」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