Only thing I knew about Bunraku was that it’s
a puppet theater. For me, the word ‘puppet theater’ directly links to the scene
of the movie The Sound of the Music. It was a puppet that manipulated with the
strings from the above, so audience won’t see the manipulators. But in the case
of Bunraku, three manipulators stand by the side of the puppet. One main
manipulator controls the head and right hand, the other moves the only left
hand, the other do the legs. That’s total of three people to movie one puppet.
This means if there are five puppets are on the stage, naturally total of 15
manipulators are on the stage. Even if they have the face cover to hide the existence,
it is really funny picture. Only main manipulator can show the face, they can
play without the masks. The most amazing part was they don’t move or change their
aspects at all to make the expression out of the scene except the puppets.
Of course, puppets can’t speak so there are
groups to make the sounds and lines. Syamisen, Japanese traditional type of the
instrument look like a guitar is used to express the atmosphere and singer
called “Tayu” do the part of the lines ant tells the story.
Last night show had an about 30 minutes of
the class for Bunraku beginners. It was really great. The real actors came out
on the stage and show as how to move the puppets, how the puppets are made, the
importance of the sound and music in Bunraku, and so on. It was really helpful class
for people like me who thought it was like the Sound of Music type of the
theater.
As the other Japanese traditional
performances like Noh, Kabuki, Rakugo, it has a strong roots in families. So
you will find that many same family names in the actor’s name. It’s like a
school in Japanese traditional art scene and still active. In this strictly ruled
network, I has a preconceived idea that maybe all the actors were pretty old.
But I must say it was wrong. There were some young faces, maybe around early
20s or so, and they were pretty cute. Plus the fact that they are contributing
to this art scene gave me an positive impression. I just want more people to go
to see the Bunraku and get the touch of the traditional art, especially for
Japanese young people who don’t know much about it like me.
*The comment on Bunraku from the Japanese
rapper BOSE is pretty funny.
*The governor of the Osaka where the Bunraku originally started said that manipulator of the puppets should be two people to cut the employment costs. I can’t believe this!
