Short answers, pulled from the story.
Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre founded in Osaka at the beginning of the 17th century. Its modern form developed around the 1680s when playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) began collaborating with chanter Takemoto Gidayu (1651-1714), who established the Takemoto puppet theater in Osaka in 1684.
All but the most minor Bunraku characters require three puppeteers. The omozukai controls the head and right hand, the hidarizukai or sashizukai operates the left hand via a control rod, and the ashizukai manages the feet and legs. All three typically perform in full view of the audience wearing black robes.
Full training at institutions like the National Theater commonly requires ten years operating the feet, ten years on the left hand, and ten years operating the head of secondary characters before a puppeteer can manipulate the head of a main character. The total path spans approximately thirty years.
Chikamatsu Monzaemon is considered the most famous Bunraku playwright. He wrote more than 100 plays and is sometimes called the Shakespeare of Japan. His work formed the literary foundation of the Bunraku repertoire.
About 80 types of puppet heads are broadly classified in the Bunraku tradition. The Digital Library of the Japan Arts Council lists 129 distinct types, some of which carry mechanical tricks such as split jaws, transforming eyes, or heads that split in two to depict a sword wound.
Bunraku is an author's theater while kabuki is a performer's theater. In Bunraku, the chanter bows reverentially before the script at the start of each act and commits to a faithful rendering of the text. In kabuki, actors routinely insert ad-libs, puns on their own names, and references to contemporary events.