11/9/2023 0 Comments Japan puppetry![]() ![]() Good Websites and Sources: Bunraku Official Site bunraku.or.jp Japan Arts Council Good Photos at Japan-Photo Archive Bunraku in the Bay Area Books: “The Bunraku Handbook” by Hironaga Shuzaburo (Maison ds Arts, 1976). The plays include heartbreaking tragedies and represent Japanese dramatic literature of the highest order. Either the stories are taken from the story collections depicting the bloody wars of Japan’s feudal period or they focus on the fates of townspeople in the Edo period. Its puppets, approximately one meter high, are manipulated by black-robed puppeteers on a wide stage, while narrators chant the story in a highly expressive manner to the accompaniment of shamisen music. Miettinen of the Theater Academy Helsinki wrote: Bunraku, a form of puppet theater, created during the early Edo period (1603–1868), is without doubt the most spectacular tradition of puppetry in the whole world. Many of its most famous plays were written by Japan’s greatest dramatist, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), and the great skill of the operators make the puppet characters and their stories come alive on stage. Despite the use of puppets, it is not a children’s theater. Together with “kabuki”, “bunraku”developed as part of the vibrant merchant culture of the Edo period (1603-1868). Ningyo”means “doll” or “puppet,” and “joruri”is the name of a style of dramatic narrative chanting accompanied by the threestringed shamisen”. ![]() Bunraku”is also called “ningyo joruri”, a name that points to its origins and essence. The term bunraku”comes from Bunrakuza, the name of the only commercial “bunraku”theater to survive into the modern era. Marionette versions of Noh and kabuki were once popular but these art forms have largely died out and are performed manly with knee-high puppets at the Yuki-za Marionetter Theater in Tokyo.ĭeveloped primarily in the 17th and 18th centuries, “bunraku” is one of the four forms of Japanese classical theater, the others being “kabuki”, noh”, and “kyogen”. Bunraku was once very popular and loved by ordinary people but these days its audience is in decline and many associate it with high-brow culture. Bunraku is performed only by men, and is performed mostly at national theaters in Osaka and Tokyo. Bunraka did not originate in Osaka but it was popularized there. īunraku is named after a promoter named Uemura Bunrakuken who popularized the form in the 19th century. In 2003, bunraku was designated by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Performed with chanting, a three-stringed shamisen and puppets, each of which is usually manipulated by three people, and also known as “joruri” (narrative chanting), it developed at the end of the of the 16th century, about the same time that the samisen was introduced from Okinawa and kabuki performances started in the Kyoto area. Male puppet “Bunraku” is Japan’s professional puppet theater. ![]()
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