Bunraku

The traditional Japanese puppet theater is known as bunraku, a name derived from Oosaka's (Osaka's) Bunraku-za theater.

Although the earliest forms of bunraku appeared in the Muromachi period, it was in the Edo period that it became popular in Kyouto (Kyoto) and Oosaka. Bunraku demands close cooperation among the ballad-reciting chanter, the shamisen accompanist, and the three operators required for each puppet. Bunraku puppets measure 1-1.5 meters high and can weigh up to 10 kg. Each of the three operators is responsible for different parts--the principal operator for the head, torso, and right hand, the first assistant for the left hand, and the second assistant for the feet--and all have devoted many years to their art of bringing the puppets to life. While dolls for female characters do not usually have feet, the hems of the kimono are moved to give the illusion of feet. Even though the puppets have little facial expression, the operators manage to make them weep, lagh, and get angry very realistically. Onstage, the operators are inconspicously clothed in black.

The greatest bunraku playwright was Chikamatsu Monzaemon, who wrote such classics as Kokusen'ya Kassen (Battles of Coxinga), Sonezaki Shinjuu (Love Suicides at Sonezaki), and Shinjuu Ten no Amijima (Love Suicides at Amijima). Modern audiences find that many of these plays still possess dramatic power and themes--romantic love, the star-crossed lovers' suicide, and war--that transcend time. Even through these are "puppet plays", there is nothing childish about them. Bunraku has been designated an Important Intangible Cultural Asset, and several bunraku artists have been named Living Cultural Treasures.

Nihon Buyou

Nihon buyou is a generic term used to refer to traditional Japanese dance forms. The earliest mention of Japanese dance is in the Kojiki. Best-known are the kabuki dances which use elements from the kabuki stage, although the kamigata dances which developed in the 19th century Kyouto-Oosaka area and is patterned after nou (noh) dance is also an important tradition. Both are performed to shamisen-centered accompaniment, the kabuki dancing retaining the stage's vigorous movements and the kamigata dance showing powerful restraint and taking place in a small area.

Nihon buyou differs conspicuously from ballet and other Western dance forms in that, while ballet dancers wear toeshoes to dance and perform leaps, Nihon buyou performers tend to move in shuffling motions. Among the many Nihon buyou schools existing today under the traditional iemoto system of master-led schools are the Nishikawa, Fujima, Inoue, and (most popular) Hanayagi schools. As with flower arrangement and the tea ceremony, most Nihon buyou students are women.