Morikawa Bakoku

A storyteller in the mid-Edo period. First generation. Real name Denkichi. His father was Morikawa Gensho, a town doctor in Edo. He became a student of Baba Bunko. He divided his readings into three sections: early, middle, and late, and differentiated between war stories, family disputes, and domestic stories. He also used one opening act and was very ingenious in the way his signboards and billboards were written, which made a great contribution to establishing the format of storytelling performances. He was learned, but lazy and often missed performances, which led to a decline in the number of customers, so he eventually wrote "Zurukenashi" (no dung) under his own signboard, which became his nickname. There were four generations of Bata, and the second generation (years of birth and death unknown) was succeeded by the first disciple Bado. He was skilled in the battlefield (hiraba), and one of his disciples was Toryusai Bakin. The third generation (years of birth and death unknown) was the biological son of the second generation, commonly known as Tatsuzo. The fourth generation (1826-88) was succeeded by Kinbai, a disciple of Toryusai Bakin.

[Nobuhiro Shinji]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸中期の講釈師。初代。本名伝吉。父は江戸の町医森川玄昌。馬場文耕(ぶんこう)に入門。読み物を初・中・後の3段に分け、軍談、御家騒動、世話物などに区別した。また、前座を1人使い、看板やびらの書き方にもくふうを凝らすなど、講談の興行形態の確立に多大の功績があった。学問はあったが、ずぼらで休席が多いため客足が落ち、ついには自ら看板の下に「づるけなし」と張り出し、これがあだ名となった。なお、馬谷の名は4代まであり、2代（生没年未詳）は初代門人馬童が継ぐ。彼は修羅場(ひらば)の上手で、門弟より東流斎馬琴(とうりゅうさいばきん)が出た。3代（生没年未詳）は2代の実子で通称辰造。4代（1826―88）は東流斎馬琴の門人琴梅(きんばい)が継ぐ。

［延広真治］

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