The Short History of Bunraku
The Japanese puppet theater, bunraku, flourished, like kabuki, during the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868), and appealed most to the people of the newly rising merchant class and other commoners. Its plays either concerned the conflicts in the daily lives of townspeople or presented the most exciting aspects of samurai life in historical dramas. Unlike Noh, with its subtle literary allusions and somber Buddhist undertones, bunraku expressed the Confucian values which were fundamental to the daily lives of its audience.
These three traditional dramatic forms, however, all share one major characteristic: their final form in performance represents a fusion of several different arts. The three main components of bunraku are the narrative, the music, and the puppets, and it takes a group of artists to bring them to life: the narrators, the musicians (who play the guitar-like shamisen), and the puppet manipulators. In addition, there are the craftsmen who create the actual puppets. The beauty of a bunraku performance depends on the absolute coordination of its component parts.
Exercises
1) The puppets as we see them in the theater today are two-thirds life-size, and require three men to manipulate them properly. The puppeteers, in the black outfits, are considered invisible, even though they do not hide themselves as in Western puppet-plays. They are said to represent "the living spirit" of the dolls. (In fact, if a puppeteer operates without wearing the black hood, it indicates his special skill and is a mark of respect for his artistry.) Why don't the Japanese think that hiding the puppeteers - making the puppets appear to be moving as if by magic - is very important? Do you think that the presence of men in black in the background makes the dolls seem any less "realistic"?
2) A disadvantage of puppets is that their faces, of course, do not have the mobility or expressive qualities of a human face. How do the design of the puppets and the manipulations of the puppeteers serve to make bunraku puppets more "realistic" and expressive than puppets used in other dramatic traditions?
3) The narrator of a bunraku play recites the lines of all the characters - changing his voice as he reads different parts- as well as all the descriptive portions of the play. List the various jobs in a Western play, such as director, actor, and so on. What functions does the narrator in Bunraku share with each? How do you think this influences the performance?
4) In the West, puppet plays, like "Punch and Judy," are usually comedies; a puppet play about a tragedy would be considered rather strange. Why do you think the Japanese had little difficulty in imagining puppet-plays as serious drama?
Taken from = Contemporary Japan: A Teaching Workbook | © Columbia University, East Asian Curriculum Project
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