Le Gang du Zabuton au INALCO 2026 | Human Light

2026.05.24

Thursday afternoon, March 26, 2026.

65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris 13th arrondissement. That day, the halls of INALCO — the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations — were filled with Japanese from morning on. The Journée du Japon, the annual event organised by the student association Dejima. Koto, taiko, calligraphy, matcha — people who love Japanese culture, friends of performers, families and curious visitors of all ages, gathering in the building for one day.

À 15 heures, Stéphane Ferrandez et le Gang du Zabuton sont entrés dans l'auditorium.

The first thing they did was not rearrange the chairs.
They placed a single cushion at the centre of the stage. That was all.
When Stéphane began to speak, something shifted in the room.

This year, four performers received their rakugo names.
Gattchiri Zabuton (Alain Marras), Kosumosu Zabuton (Émeline Aelig), Shôjiki Zabuton (Alexandre Cyprien-Scerri), and Kiryoku Zabuton (Mycki-kun).

The stories are adapted by Sandrine Garbuglia, who transforms the group’s translations into full French-language rakugo scripts.

Rakugo lives and ends on that one cushion. Armed with only a fan and a small cloth, the storyteller plays multiple characters alone, shifts scenes, weaves laughter and silence. No set, no lighting design. All that is needed is a voice, a body, and someone to listen.

An Edo-period story, told in French. A performing art born four hundred years ago rising up, in this moment, before an audience in Paris. Laughter came. A beat of silence. Then laughter again. Not laughter filtered through translation — laughter that arrived directly, carried by the story itself.
Le Gang du Zabuton — “the cushion gang.” France’s first permanent rakugo company, a group of eight performers who have taken part in INALCO’s Journée du Japon every year since 2022.
This year, each of them received a rakugo name.
To carry a name is to carry a readiness to stand on stage. These seven names mark the beginning of a new chapter for the group.

Even after the performance ended, the audience stayed still for a while.

In Paris, before a room full of people drawn together by their love of Japan — French performers bringing a classical Japanese art to life. The scene had something of a quiet miracle about it.

The rakugo master Tatekawa Danshi once said: