Interview with husband-and-wife benshi “Mucchan and Kacchan”
We spoke with Yabuki Katsutoshi and Yabuki Mutsumi, who perform as the husband-and-wife benshi duo “Mucchan and Kacchan.”
“We have to show everyone in Kojima how moving benshi is! We want them to see it!”
Tell us how the two of you first encountered benshi.
Katsutoshi (surname omitted hereafter)
In 2004, we boarded a cruise ship that was sailing around the world.
The ship would take on lecturers called “pilots,” who worked in fields such as entertainment, environmental issues, and politics. One of them was benshi performer Sasaki Akiko, who held a screening of a benshi film on board.
That was how we first encountered benshi films.
Mutsumi (surname omitted hereafter)
Don’t you picture benshi performers as “old men with beards”?
But Sasaki was a young woman, around 30 years old. That surprised me first of all.
At the start of the screening, I listened thinking, “She’s the one speaking.”
But before long, I was completely absorbed in the film.
I forgot that “she was speaking” and felt as if I were watching an ordinary film that had sound from the start.
So when the screening ended and I looked again at Sasaki sitting beside the screen, it hit me that “she had been doing all the talking by herself!” I was overcome with emotion.
And I thought, “When we get home, we have to show everyone in Kojima how moving this is! We want them to see it!”
Katsutoshi
After returning home, we held an event called “Benshi Cinema Live” in Kojima in 2005. We didn’t perform benshi ourselves that time; we invited Sasaki to Kojima to give a performance.
I’d also like to hear how the two of you came to work as benshi performers.
Mutsumi
As we continued holding events, someone from the Okayama Film Festival invited us, saying, “Would you like to screen a benshi film yourselves?” We had taken part in a workshop organized by Sasaki on board the ship, but we had never imagined performing benshi in front of an audience, so we were surprised.
But Sasaki encouraged us, too, and we decided to perform benshi ourselves.
The film the organizers asked us to perform was Goketsu Jiraiya.
It stars an actor from Okayama. They asked us because they wanted people in Okayama Prefecture to know that actors from Okayama were active in the early days of motion pictures.
However, it has many sword-fighting scenes with men, and I couldn’t keep up a strong male voice on my own.
So I asked Sasaki, “Would it be all right if Kacchan (Katsutoshi) and I performed benshi together?” She agreed, saying, “That sounds fun!” And so, quite naturally, the husband-and-wife benshi duo “Mucchan and Kacchan” was born.
Bringing forgotten silent films back to life with benshi
Are there any works that left a particularly strong impression on you?
Katsutoshi
We write all the dialogue ourselves from scratch for every film, so we feel attached to them all. But Sei wa Zen (“Human Nature Is Good”) especially stands out in my memory.
This silent film was discovered in 2018 at Konko Library in Asakuchi City. It was made in 1924 by Kawaguchi Kichitaro, former head of the Imperial Kinema studio and a follower of Konkokyo. Only reels 1, 2, and 5 were found.
At the time, original silent films were used as part of missionary activities.
The people at Konko Library wanted to show the three discovered reels to everyone and were looking for benshi performers, and it seems they eventually found us.
Mutsumi
The people at Konko Library had put together the framework of a script based on old materials, but we adapted it to make it easier to speak in sync with the images and created a new script.
It was during the period of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, so I remember holding many small live performances in Konko.
We also made a film that recorded the benshi narration and silent film at the same time, so it could be screened even when we weren’t there, and submitted it to the Okayama Film Festival.
Later, we were also approached by the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University, and in 2023 we performed benshi at the Centennial Memorial Hall in Kyoto University’s Centennial Clock Tower Memorial Hall.
Katsutoshi
It was a memorable story of how an activity we started hoping to bring to people in our community reached people from Bicchu as well.
Passing the immersive experience of benshi on to future generations
I hear you also hold workshops for children, not just adults.
Mutsumi
We held a benshi workshop at an elementary school in Kojima, too.
As we were leaving after the workshop for third-grade students, the children told us, “That benshi just now sounded like the voices were coming from inside the film.”
That is the happiest thing a benshi performer can hear, and it was exactly what I felt the first time I watched one of Sasaki’s benshi films.
Children tell you very directly what they feel, so I was truly happy to realize that the emotion I wanted to convey had reached the children of Kojima.
Children today grow up watching brightly colored animated films. But the film reels we use for benshi films are black and white, worn out, and flicker.
Even so, they move children’s hearts. Those words made me certain that benshi is something worth preserving.
What do you think makes benshi special?
Mutsumi
Above all, it’s the immersive atmosphere of a live performance.
With benshi, the motion picture is shown on stage, a musician plays music, and the benshi performer delivers the dialogue and explains the film.
That creates an immersive feeling, as if the actors were performing right there, even though they aren’t actually on stage.
I think this is a unique appeal of benshi films, created by live music and live voices.
Katsutoshi
Because it’s a live performance, the audience can take part, too.
When a great scene comes on, there’s thunderous applause. When there’s great narration, there’s thunderous applause. When there’s great music, everyone claps along…
Motion pictures, benshi performers, musicians, and the audience become not three but four parts of one whole—that’s the appeal of benshi films.
When the audience gets excited, that energy comes through in the benshi performer’s narration and the music, too.
In other words, the benshi film itself changes a little each time the audience changes. Isn’t that part of the magic?
What are your hopes for the future?
Katsutoshi
In fact, dialogue was added to motion pictures only in Japan, Korea, and Thailand.
That’s because Japan has long had a “culture of storytelling.” Examples include joruri, rokyoku, and rakugo.
In other words, I think benshi films took root easily because there was already a culture of enjoying stories accompanied by narration.
We do this because we want to preserve benshi, one of the storytelling traditions that has continued to this day.
I myself love movies, after all.
It makes me happy when everyone enjoys themselves and laughs.
Mutsumi
Benshi films are hardly ever screened in regional areas anymore. Only a handful of us, including ourselves, are active west of Kansai.
Living outside the major cities greatly reduces opportunities to experience culture. Even so, there are works that we especially want people in Okayama to know about, like the films from Konko Library and the first work we screened. We want to keep passing these works on in Kojima, where we live.
Do you have a message for our readers?
Katsutoshi
We’ve gotten older, so it’s all we can do to follow the script in the dark and keep our voices clear and strong all the way to the end.
We may not be able to take on feature-length films like Mother’s Eyes (starring Chiezo Kataoka), which will be screened at the 3rd Shimotsui Film Club Screening in May 2025.
If reading this article helps you learn about benshi and about us, and sparks the interest of younger generations, we hope you’ll come and see a performance.
Mutsumi
From now on, rather than promoting ourselves, we want to focus on activities that preserve benshi for the next generation.
If younger people find it appealing and want to give it a try, we’ll gladly pass it on without holding anything back.
From the Writer
While arranging the interview, the Yabuki couple asked me, “Have you ever seen a benshi film?” When I told them I hadn’t, they let me observe a rehearsal for Mother’s Eyes (starring Chiezo Kataoka), scheduled to be screened at the 3rd Shimotsui Film Club Screening on Monday, May 19, 2025.
There are subtitles here and there, but the Yabuki couple wrote the script for all the other parts. Yet every part flowed so naturally that I couldn’t help getting absorbed in it, as if the film had been shot to match this script from the very beginning.
There may still be many silent films lying undiscovered in the Takahashi River Basin, including Kurashiki. I can’t help hoping that efforts to breathe life into films through benshi and preserve the culture of benshi will continue in this region.
Profile of husband-and-wife benshi “Mucchan and Kacchan”
| Name | Husband-and-wife benshi “Mucchan and Kacchan” |
|---|---|
| Address | Kojima, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture |
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