Bunraku Theater

         Bunraku, or Japanese puppet theater, is probably the most developed form of puppetry in the world. It is closer in style to Punch and Judy than Pinnochio as there are no strings and in its early days the puppeteers were hidden behind a curtain. The puppets are large - usually about one-half life size - and the main characters are operated by three puppeteers. Many bunraku plays are historical and deal with the common Japanese theme of giri and ninjo - the conflict between social obligations and human emotions. The greatest works by Japan's most famous playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653~1724) are bunraku plays, many of which are written around this kind of conflict.

         Bunraku is actually the name commonly used for ningyo joruri - ningyo meaning puppet and joruri being a kind of chanted narration. Puppet plays are believed to have their origins in the 10th or 11th century. Itinerant entertainers, many from Awaji Island in the Seto Inland Sea, presented plays in the nearby cities of Osaka and Kyoto.

     Bunraku as we know it today, combining puppetry, joruri and musical accompaniment provided by the three-stringed shamisen, began in the Edo Period (1600~1868) in Osaka. Like kabuki before it, in the 1600's bunraku became the common man's equivalent of the noh, which only the aristocracy were allowed to study. It flourished from the end of the 17th century, thanks particularly to the popular collaboration of the chanter Takemoto Gidayu I with Chikamatsu. Chikamatsu's Love Suicides at Sonezaki (1703, Sonezaki Shinju) is equivalent in stature and theme to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The play, based on an actual recent love-suicide, was so popular that it caused an increase in this kind of suicide - until the government made it illegal. The concept of basing a play on a recent event was revolutionary and really caught the imagination of the public. The most famous bunraku play is probably Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon Chushingura), a story of heroics, loyalty and revenge, which has also been made into a famous kabuki play and filmed many times.