Bunraku

• 1. Introduction

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  Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre that began in Osaka at the start of the 17th century and is still performed today. Picture a stage where three puppeteers in black robes move in silent concert, their hands inside a single puppet, each controlling a different limb. One chanter sits to the side and speaks every character's voice. A shamisen player fills the air with a sound lower in pitch and fuller in tone than any ordinary shamisen. None of this happened by accident. How did a performance tradition born among itinerant outcasts become one of Japan's most protected cultural forms? And what does it take to make a single wooden head that can transform a beautiful woman into a demon in a single pulled string?

• 2. Origins and Rise

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  The roots of Bunraku reach back to the 16th century, but the modern form took shape around the 1680s. Its decisive moment came when the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon, born in 1653, began a collaboration with the chanter Takemoto Gidayu, born in 1651. Gidayu established the Takemoto puppet theater in Osaka in 1684, and that partnership gave Bunraku much of its literary and sonic identity. Chikamatsu eventually wrote more than 100 plays. His reputation grew so large that he is sometimes called the Shakespeare of Japan.

  The word "bunraku" itself has a more specific origin. Originally it referred only to a particular theater established in 1805 in Osaka, named the Bunrakuza. That theater took its name from a puppeteering ensemble led by an early 18th-century puppeteer from Awaji, whose efforts revived the flagging fortunes of puppet theatre at the time. Only later did the name come to stand for the entire tradition.

  The social origins of the performers were humble. The kugutsu-mawashi, the itinerant puppeteers who gave birth to this tradition, were treated as outcasts by the educated and wealthy class of Japanese society. Men worked small hand puppets in miniature performances; women often used dancing and magic tricks to attract travelers. The whole environment that produced those early puppet shows found its way into the themes Bunraku would carry for centuries.

• 3. Three People, One Puppet

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  All but the most minor characters in a Bunraku performance require three puppeteers working in coordinated silence. The main puppeteer, called the omozukai, uses their right hand to control the puppet's right hand and their left hand to manage the puppet's head. A second puppeteer, known as the hidarizukai or sashizukai depending on the troupe's tradition, operates the puppet's left hand using their own right hand and a control rod that extends from the puppet's elbow. A third puppeteer, the ashizukai, handles the feet and legs.

  The omozukai inserts their left hand into the puppet's chest through a hole in the back of the torso. All controls for the head's movements sit on a handle that extends down from the puppet's neck. This arrangement means the head and right hand are both guided by one person's two hands simultaneously.

  Training follows a strict progression. Puppeteers begin on the feet, then train on the left hand, and only afterward attempt the head. At the National Theater, many practitioners describe a path that requires ten years on the feet, ten years on the left hand, and ten years operating the head of secondary characters before a puppeteer qualifies to control the head of a main character. In Japan's culture of seniority, this long ladder also serves a practical social function: it manages competition among performers and keeps the demographics of a troupe in balance.

  In most traditions, all three puppeteers wear black robes and black hoods. A few others, including the National Bunraku Theater, leave the main puppeteer unhooded. This visible performance style is known as dezukai, and it changed the relationship between the puppeteers and the audience in a direct way.

• 4. Heads, Hair, and Costumes

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  The heads of Bunraku puppets, called kashira, are divided into categories according to gender, social class, and personality. Some heads are built for a single specific role; others can serve multiple productions by swapping out clothing and repainting the face. Heads are in fact repainted and prepared before each presentation.

  About 80 types of puppet heads are broadly classified. The Digital Library of the Japan Arts Council lists 129 distinct types. Some of these carry mechanical tricks. Pulling a string on the gabu head can instantly split a beautiful woman's mouth open to her ears, grow fangs, change her eyes to large golden ones, and sprout golden horns. The nashiwari head can be made to split in two by pulling a string, revealing a red interior to represent a head severed by a sword. The head of Tamamo-no-Mae can instantly cover a beautiful woman's face with a mask, showing the true form of the nine-tailed fox in a single head.

  Hair preparation is its own discipline. The hair, made from human hair with yak tail added for volume, is fixed on a copper plate. The finishing is done with water and beeswax rather than oil to protect the head from damage.

  Costumes are designed by a costume master. They typically include a sash, a collar, an underkimono known as a juban, a kimono, and either a haori or an outer robe called an uchikake. Cotton lining keeps the garments soft. As costumes wear out or become soiled, puppeteers replace them through a process called koshirae.

• 5. The Chanter and the Shamisen

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  A single tayū usually recites every character's part in a scene, shifting vocal pitch and style to make each character distinct. The tayū also serves as narrator. Seated to the side of the stage, the tayū physically expresses the facial emotions of each character while performing their voices, exaggerating both to maximize the emotional effect for the audience.

  The shamisen used in Bunraku is the futo-zao, the largest shamisen and the one with the lowest register. It is slightly larger than other kinds of shamisen and produces a fuller, lower tone. The chanter and the shamisen player sit beside each other. Their harmony determines the quality of the musical contribution to the performance.

  Some traditional puppet theaters have a revolving platform for the chanter and shamisen player. When one pair finishes a scene, the platform rotates to bring them offstage and deliver the next performers into place. The auxiliary stage on which this gidayu-bushi is performed, called the yuka, juts out into the audience area at the front right side of the seats.

  Other instruments also appear: flutes, in particular the shakuhachi, the koto, and various percussion instruments. Taiko drums are sometimes used. But the chanter and shamisen remain the essential pairing. Before every act, the tayū kneels behind a small ornate lectern, reverentially lifts the script, and bows over it, promising fidelity to the text. That ritual sets Bunraku apart from kabuki, where actors routinely insert ad-libs, puns on their own names, and references to contemporary events.

• 6. Plays and Themes

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  Bunraku shares many themes with kabuki, and the two traditions have exchanged plays freely. Many works were adapted for both actor-led kabuki performances and puppet-led Bunraku productions. The story of the forty-seven ronin is famous in both forms. Bunraku is particularly noted for lovers' suicide plays.

  The fundamental difference between the two is a question of authority. Bunraku is an author's theater; kabuki is a performer's theater. In Bunraku, the text is treated as sacred. The tayū bows before it at the start of every act. In kabuki, actors own the stage and shape it to themselves.

  Chikamatsu Monzaemon's plays are the bedrock of the Bunraku repertoire. His more than 100 works gave the tradition a literary depth that helped it outlast political upheaval and cultural change. The combination of chanting and shamisen playing in Bunraku is called joruri, and the puppets themselves are called ningyo, the general Japanese word for puppet or doll.

• 7. Troupes Today

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  Osaka remains the home of the government-supported National Bunraku Theatre, which offers five or more shows every year, each running two to three weeks in Osaka before transferring to Tokyo for a run at the National Theater. The company also tours within Japan and occasionally abroad.

  Until the late 1800s, hundreds of professional, semi-professional, and amateur troupes performed traditional puppet drama across Japan. Since the end of World War II, that number has fallen to fewer than 40, and most of those perform only once or twice a year, often alongside local festivals.

  The Awaji Puppet Troupe, on Awaji Island southwest of Kobe, offers short daily performances and more extensive shows at its own theater and has toured the United States, Russia, and elsewhere. A troupe from Shiga Prefecture, founded in the 1830s, has toured the United States and Australia on five occasions and runs academic programs for American university students who want to train in traditional Japanese puppetry.

  The Imada Puppet Troupe and the Kuroda Puppet Troupe are both based in the city of Iida in Nagano Prefecture. Both trace their histories back more than 300 years. Both perform frequently and run training programs at local middle schools and summer academic programs for American university students.

  In North America, the Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe, based at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, has been active since 2003. It has performed at venues including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institution, and has also performed alongside the Imada Puppet Troupe in Japan. The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia, holds an extensive collection of Bunraku puppets in its Asian holdings.

  Bunraku companies, performers, and puppet makers have been designated Living National Treasures under Japan's program for preserving its culture. The puppets of Awaji, with their tradition of outdoor performance, tend to be some of the largest made anywhere in the tradition.