BUNRAKU

Figure 1: Bunraku Performance (playing with puppets)

Name: TaichiClass: 10CWords: 715

Introduction

Bunraku is the Japanese traditional theater, which developed in the South of Japan, especially Osaka in the 17th century. I am going to examine what are the elements, which make a Bunraku puppet. In order to investigate this question, I will discover 4 main topics, which are basic information of Bunraku, history, performers, and puppets to support figure out my research question precisely.

What is Bunraku?

As I mentioned before in the introduction, Bunraku is the Japanese traditional theater. Bunraku is a Japanese form of Puppet Theater used to show Japanese culture professionally very well. Bunraku well known as Ningyo Joruri in Japan, which has been use over 400 years at the time of Edo era. Basically, European styles of puppets are devices to conceal from the audiences. In contrast, it is totally dissimilar with any others world puppets, the performers are stately appeared in front of the audiences. As contrast with above those 2 peculiarities, that is the reason that Bunraku is the most highly advanced puppet theatre art in the world. (BUNRAKU KYOKAI official web site – 2011)

History of Bunraku

Bunraku is about 400 years old, approximately same old as Kabuki. The plays performed on Bunraku stages, the fact that is similar to their Kabuki and Noh relatives. At the begging of history, it has been restarted to expand from 17th century, commonly this period of Bunraku is the one performed most. Chikamatsu was the best playwright who had written performances for the Kabuki in the 17th century. After that he created a lot of the classical stories for Bunraku, which greatly influenced on Bunraku. Recently, in the 20th century Bunraku designated one of Japanese Intangible Cultural Heritage that leads to get more opportunity to know Bunraku in the world. (Essortment Articles: Free Online Articles on Health, Science, Education & More – 2011)

Performers

Figure 2: Right Tayu. Left Shamisen player Figure 3: Puppet Master

There are 3 main performers who are shamisen, tayu and puppet master. First of all, Shamisen player is necessary specialist musician of Bunraku. The shamisen is old Japanese traditional instrument. It looks like a guitar with 3 strings and it made by leather of snake. The shamisen used in Bunraku is especially large and heavy, giving it a superlative resonance and fullness of tone. The music creates a mood traditionally by hearing old cultural music. Second, Tayu is the narrator and chanter of Bunraku. Basically, Tayu tells the historic background with emotional and persuasive words on stage. Tayu also sings the songs while performers are not on the stage. Wonderfully, tayu plays all the characters in the story such as man, women and child by himself. In order to be tayu, they have to have a strong voice with clear accent be able to get feelings stage to the audience. Lastly, puppet master who is controlling a puppet doll plays good combination with shamisen and tayu. Likewise, Bunraku puppet masters control the one puppet with 3 specialists at the same time. Specifically, 1-man control legs, another man control arms and 1 another man control a head. To be puppet masters and perform on a stage it takes about 30 years. ("太夫と三味線." 文楽人形. – 2011 & The puppet theater of Japan Bunraku – 2011)

Puppets

　　　 Figure 4: The head Figure 5: Wigs

The puppets of Bunraku doll can be divide into body parts. For instance, head and wigs are the most significant objects in Bunraku. First, the heads of Bunraku puppets symbolize male or female. Then the heads are sort according to the status, personality, age and married or unmarried. They have all their special own names. The heads repainted to recover every performance by professional head’s painter. Furthermore, they also inspect contrivance of eyes and mouth neatly. The heads made by people’s hard effort for it. The heads not only represent individual characteristic, it also symbolize people’s effort. (文楽人形 – 2011) Second, The wigs are numeral of basic styles; it depends on the type of character being depicted. The wig masters create suitable hairstyle for every characters based on their characteristics. Surprisingly, The wigs made by human hair and sometimes use cow’s tail. Above, heads and wigs support to show Bunraku performance to the audience effectively. (The puppet theater of Japan Bunraku- 2011)

Conclusion

In conclusion, to answer the research question, Bunraku puppet makes by the precision heads and wigs and they represent significant parts on a stage at all the time. In addition, elements of the 3 main performers support to create a Japanese traditional atmosphere beside the stage. The professionals put so much effort and time to create a Bunraku performance perfectly.

Bibliography

Website

Website 1"BUNRAKU KYOKAI official web site." BUNRAKU KYOKAI official web site. N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www.bunraku.or.jp/ebunraku/index.htmlI got the basic knowledge of Bunraku at this website

Website 2"Bunraku - Japanese Puppetry." Essortment Articles: Free Online Articles on Health, Science, Education & More.... N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www.essortment.com/bunraku---japanese-puppetry-58118.htmlThis site shows the history of Bunraku very specific with good explanation.

Website 3"太夫と三味線." 文楽人形. N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/jp/contents/creaters/tayu.htmlThis website tells me that who are the main performers in Bunraku and what are they doing during the play.

Website 4"The Chanter and the Shamisen Player." The puppet theater of Japan Bunraku. N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/creaters/tayu.htmlThis website tells what are the tayu and shamisen player in Bunraku.

Website 5"首." 文楽人形. N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/jp/contents/dolls/kashira.htmlThis website only describes about heads of Bunraku puppet. This website was the only one that I found about heads of Bunraku on internet.

Website 6"The Puppets' Wigs." The puppet theater of Japan Bunraku. N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/contents/creaters/wig.htmlThis website is also only explains about wigs of Bunraku.

Figures

Figure 1"Japanese Traditional Performing Arts - Classical Theater." Wikispaces. N.p., 22 Mar. 2011. Web. 22 Mar. 2011www.cct300-f07.wikispaces.com/Japanese+Traditional+Performing+Arts+-+Classical+Theater>The image of Bunraku performance.

Figure 2"文楽." 文楽の情報. N.p., 22 Mar. 2011. Web. 22 Mar. 2011. http://www2.edu.ipa.go.jp/gz/g1bun1/g13tyu/g1tyu1/g1t101.jpgThe image of Shamisen player and Tayu.

Figure 3" −ヲ クの模様." yoshino web. N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www.yoshino.ne.jp/wakwak/seinenbu/sample/yoshitune/work.htmThe image of puppet master.

Figure 4"首." 文楽人形. N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/jp/contents/dolls/kashira.htmlThe image of heads of Bunraku.

Figure5"文楽入門." 文楽鑑賞入門. N.p., 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. http://www.sun-edu.co.jp/kanshou_nyumon/bunraku_kanshou/kanshou_bunraku_word.htmThe image of wigs.