Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju manga features story and art by Haruko Kumota.

In Volume 6, after apprenticing for ten years under the great Yakumo Yurakutei VIII, Yotaro has finally become a shin’uchi and taken the name Sukeroku, a lineage with its own fraught history. But the newly-minted Sukeroku III cannot rest on his laurels for long, as ghosts from his own past come to haunt him in the wake of his achievement. With his family and his art on the line, can he find his way forward? Or will he be doomed to mediocrity as the rakugo tradition languishes?

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju volume 7 features story and art by Haruko Kumota.

Yotaro’s reputation as the third generation Sukeroku spreads, and he’s getting steady work on both TV and at the yose. Higuchi, overjoyed to see Yotaro satisfy so many people, longs to create new rakugo stories with him, though it’s heresy in Yakumo’s eyes. Yakumo plans to take his own rakugo to the grave, but when he collapses during a performance, he finds his desires may once again be thwarted.

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju manga volume 8 features story and art by Haruko Kumota.

Yakumo slowly begins to recover after his collapse on stage, but the light inside him has faded, and he shockingly declares that he won’t perform rakugo anymore. Meanwhile, in search of a film taken of the late Sukeroku, Higuchi takes Yotaro and Matsuda to Shikoku, where the two men learn a truth about the two storytellers—and what really happened that fateful night that claimed Sukeroku and Miyokichi’s lives.

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju manga volume 9 features story and art by Haruko Kumota.

Faced with the limits of his physical body and confronted with the reality of the changing world around him, Yakumo turns his back on his art. Yotaro, however, refuses to let him give up, and convinces Yakumo to perform “The God of Death” for a friend in prison. Yotaro hopes that this performance will inspire others in the same way that Yakumo once inspired him, but the performance ends up hitting a little too close to home…

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju manga volume 10 features story and art by Haruko Kumota.

After the last remaining yose in Tokyo burns down, the future of rakugo is more uncertain than ever. But even without a theater to perform in, Yotaro is still adamant on keeping rakugo alive. Meanwhile, Yakumo makes his way through the underworld, but to pass on to the peace he so desperately craves, he’ll need to finally, and literally, lay his ghosts to rest.