Bunraku: voice, strings and a puppet’s movement

The tayū supplies more than dialogue. Gidayū narration moves between characters’ speech, scene-setting narration and song-like passages with shamisen. Vocal changes distinguish different people and their thoughts. The thick-necked shamisen supports and leads the chanter; its plectrum both plucks the strings and strikes the skin, combining melody with percussive rhythm and punctuation. Puppet operators give these voices a visible body. Their presence on stage is part of the theatrical convention.

At the opening described by the Japan Arts Council, the shamisen sounds first, then the chanter begins and the puppets move with the jōruri music. Chanter and player match their timing and breath as equal partners; neither conducts the other.

Three operators

The principal operator controls the head and right hand. A second controls the left hand, while a third handles the feet. Small signals coordinate timing. Some female puppets suggest steps through the movement of their clothing rather than physical feet, and simpler supporting figures may use fewer operators. Heads, mechanisms and costumes respond to the role.

Mechanisms in the head and limbs

A head with moving eyes or eyebrows contains a mechanical link from the operator’s grip to those features. Hooks or levers on the dogushi handle pull strings inside the hollow head. A separate rod moves the left hand. Male feet have fittings for manipulation; the usual legless female arrangement instead lets the foot operator suggest steps with fists inside the hem. The movement available depends on the head and role.

Stage and story types

The chanter and shamisen player usually perform on a platform to the audience’s right of the stage. Stage partitions conceal part of the operating space and establish the puppet’s apparent ground level. Jidaimono use historical settings, sewamono concern domestic or urban life, and keigoto emphasise dance.

Concealed communication at Tenmaya

In the Tenmaya scene of The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, the lovers communicate in secret. Ohatsu appears to speak to herself while questioning Tokubei, who is hidden below the veranda and screened by her robe. When she asks about his resolve to die with her, he takes her ankle towards his throat in reply. The tayū makes the apparent monologue and its intended listener intelligible; the puppets’ positions and gesture show how the lovers communicate out of others’ sight. The images here come from a February 2010 performance presented by the Japan Arts Council.

Jōruri and the Takemoto-za

Jōruri began as melodic storytelling; its name recalls the tale of Princess Jōruri. The shamisen entered Japan in the sixteenth century and became an accompanying instrument. Around 1600, this narration joined puppet performance. Takemoto Gidayū founded Osaka’s Takemoto-za in 1684. There, Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s The Love Suicides at Sonezaki premiered in 1703, bringing the troubles of contemporary townspeople into the theatre.

The Toyotake-za and theatrical competition

In the same year, Gidayū’s pupil Toyotake Wakatayū opened the rival Toyotake-za. Its more melodic delivery competed with the Takemoto-za’s contrasting style, known respectively as the eastern and western styles. Competition between theatres helped drive the eighteenth-century expansion of performance and repertoire.

Puppet technique and theatre fortunes

Three-person manipulation of a principal puppet was introduced in a 1734 production, extending its expressive movement. Long plays also encouraged collaborative writing. The eighteenth-century Kanadehon Chūshingura dramatises a revenge story through conflicts between warrior loyalty and private lives. Osaka puppet theatres lost audiences in the later eighteenth century, while amateur study of jōruri remained popular. Uemura Bunrakuken later organised performances in Osaka; a successor theatre took the name Bunraku-za in the Meiji period. That institutional name became attached to the tradition.

Collaborative writing and major plays

After Chikamatsu’s death, teams of writers developed elaborate plays by dividing the acts among them. Three enduring works premiered at the Takemoto-za in successive years, 1746–1748: Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura and Kanadehon Chūshingura. Rivalry continued in the Meiji period, when the Hikoroku-za opened in 1884 and recruited performers from the Bunraku-za. The latter’s eventual prominence followed the disappearance of competing companies.

Shōchiku took over the Bunraku-za’s operations in the early twentieth century. The theatre suffered an air raid in 1945, with performances resuming in temporary premises in 1946. Recovery also involved labour and management disputes: the performers divided into the Chinami-kai and Mitsuwa-kai in the late 1940s, then reunited in 1963 with the establishment of the Bunraku Association. Bunraku had received designation as an Important Intangible Cultural Property in 1955. The National Theatre opened in Tokyo in 1966, a public training programme began in 1972, and the National Bunraku Theatre opened in Osaka in 1984. Institutional training added a route into the profession alongside apprenticeship.