Born in 1858 in North Adelaide, Henry Black moved with his family to Japan at aged seven where his father had become editor of an English-language newspaper in Yokohama. While it was expected that he would follow the path of his family into ‘respectable’ business he decided upon another path.

Under the professional name of Kairakutei Burakku Black, fluent in Japanese, became a rakugoka 落語家, a professional storyteller who enthralled audiences with his adaptations of stories from the novels of Charles Dickens and Mary Braddon amongst others, as well as detective stories. 

He also acted in kabuki roles, made some of the first voice recordings in Japan, managed an orchestra, was a magician and hypnotist, and a teacher of English. He married so he could become a Japanese citizen, was a member of the pro-democracy movement, drank heavily, went into debt as the vagaries of a theatrical life affected his income, lived with his male partner, and was shunned by his family. 

When he died in 1923 in Tokyo his sister quickly arranged his burial in the Foreigners’ Cemetery in Yokohama.

Sokkibon (Stenographic book)

Published versions of Henry Black’s narrations were interspersed with explanations of western customs for the Japanese audience, some of the characters given Japanese names, and other aspects in the story are put in to a Japanese context for the audience.

Shachu no Dokubari [̀The poisoned pin in the stagecoach] is a  Victorian style detective mystery with Japanese characters about the mysterious death of a woman on a stagecoach. In 14 parts it was adapted from the 1881 tale Le Crime de l’Omnibus by French mystery writer Fortuné du Boisgobey.

The image is the front cover of the book.

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