The Japanese Storyteller appeared in recurring Sesame Street inserts in the early 1970s, telling stories of ancient Japan. The storyteller was always seated in the foreground, often near a gong, while the characters enacted his tale in the background. The story characters often repeated the narrator's exposition word for word. Recurring figures in his narratives included the Emperor and the Evil Prime Minister. The latter, dissatisified with the ending of one story, beats the storyteller with a mallet.