Bunraku is a form of Japanese puppet theater founded in Osaka in 1684. It uses highly detailed wooden puppets, human hair wigs, and elaborate costumes. Each puppet is controlled by three handlers, and the story is narrated by a chanter while shamisen players provide music. The plays focus on themes of love, honor, and loyalty and have remained popular since their inception. The National Bunraku Theater in Osaka and troupes like the Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe in America continue to perform this unique and complex theater.
Bunraku is a form of puppet theater unique to Japan. Using traditional legends and plays originally written for kabuki, puppet theater has remained popular since its inception. Founded in the city of Osaka, Japan in 1684, bunraku has evolved into a complex and popular form of theater.
Itinerant storytellers using puppets had long been a part of Japanese culture, but it was not until 1684 that the tradition was articulated as a distinct form. Takemoto Gidayu formed his puppet theater in Osaka with the help of the great playwright Chikematsu Monzaemon and a theater manager and financier named Takeda Izumo. Chikematsu focused on adapting kabuki plays for the new theater, focusing on stories with themes of loyalty and other Confucian values. Using knowledge gained from other puppet work, Takeda introduced innovations in puppet mechanics, including movable eyes and eyebrows.
The puppets used in this form of theater are carved from wood and are highly detailed, painted and in costume. Special wigs, called kazura, are made from human hair and styled into a variety of character-specific hairstyles. The puppet costumes are elaborate and vary according to the character’s class and gender. In the basic form, the costumes consist of a petticoat, a kimono, an outer jacket and a sash. The puppets also sometimes carry small props, such as handkerchiefs.
Bunraku puppets are very large, sometimes nearly the size of humans. Each puppet is handled by three highly trained handlers. The main puppeteer, or Omo-zukai, controls the puppet’s facial mechanics and right hand. The Hidari-zukai operates the puppet’s left arm. Usually the younger and less experienced puppeteer is the Ashi-zukai, who moves the puppet’s legs or skirts. Puppeteers must work in perfect coordination to make the puppet’s movements look realistic and natural.
The puppeteers, completely occupied with the puppets’ movements, do not pronounce the lines of a bunraku play. Instead, the form uses a narrator, also called a chanter. The narrator sits with the game script in a special booth called a kendai. He voices each of the characters, as well as providing an overall narrative of the story and setting. The chanter is tasked with making the audience understand each character’s emotion and situation, and the style of storytelling is often considered poetic or highly emotional.
The third essential component of bunraku is the music, provided by three shamisen players. The shamisen, a long-necked instrument similar to the guitar or lute, comes in low, medium, and high ranges. Shamisen music is used to help create the ambiance of the show, and also highlights the emotion of a character or situation. Other musical instruments may be added, such as flutes, bells, or drums, but traditional puppet theater uses only shamisen performers.
Bunraku theater focuses on highly dramatic stories involving love, honor and loyalty. Since the end of World War II, Osaka has funded the National Bunraku Theater, which has performances several times a year. Outside of Japan, troupes have formed in America, including the Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe. This Missouri-based company travels the country each year, bringing performances from this unique and complex theater to ever-growing audiences.
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