Banraku Theatre

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Banraku Theatre

• http//www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/

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What is Banraku?
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• Bunraku is a form of Japanese puppetry and
  storytelling.
• The form goes back about 1,000 years- but became
  most popular about 300 years ago.
• It us enjoying a revival today in modern times,
  but is not the national passion it once was.
• Tells old tales, sometimes stories about history
  is very traditional.
• Often involves Confucian teachings (i.e. loyalty
  over personal feelings).
• The artists strive for realism in the puppets.
• The puppets are about a meter tall, may have
  moveable eyes, eyebrows and jaws.
• May take 3 puppeteers to move one puppet.
• Musicians played an important role in the play.

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Two Theatres
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What is Banraku?

• Traditional puppet theatre of Japan
• gradually it came to be used as the name of the
  art of puppet theatre itself .
• was known as ayatsuri joruri shibai ("puppet
  joruri plays") or ningyo joruri, or "puppet
  narrative drama until the end of the Meiji era
  (1868-1912)

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Structure of the Stage
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Stage View close up

• painted backdrop (kakiwari) is attached to
  partition farthest from audience.
• "railings" (tesuri).
• pit (funazoko lit., "ship bottom"),
• The funazoko is where the manipulators stand and
  move the puppets

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Structure of the stage
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Stage Positions

• right-hand side is called kamite (stage left),
• shimote (stage right)
• black curtains (komaku)
• The puppets make their appearance and then leave
  the stage through

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Banraku and Joruri

• Now, joruri is a type of shamisen music, and the
  name reflects that the puppet plays were
  performed to a joruri accompaniment
• This music was very popular and is part of the
  reason for Banrakus popularity.

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The Shamisen Player

• There are three types of shamisen futo-zao
  ('thick-necked'), chu-zao or naka-zao
  ('medium-necked'), and hoso-zao ('thin-necked').
  True to its name, the futo-zao shamisen is the
  largest and lowest pitched of the three types

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The Shamisen Player

• it is made use of in gidayu-bushi,
• gidayu-bushi, which requires singing from the
  lower abdomen
• futo-zao shamisen produces a type of music whose
  feeling is quite different from joruri
• not proper as the gidayu shamisen. For that
  reason, the ideal is that the shamisen player
  must become one in spirit with the chanter

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Chanting

• Bunraku plays develop through the chanting of
  gidayu-bushi
• chanter (tayu) not only recites the dialogue for
  all the characters
• Tayu also relates the spectacle of the scene and
  explains the background behind the event taking
  place
• Long pieces take about 90 minutes
• number of characters can vary from only a few to
  around fifteen.

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What makes Banraku Different?

• a whole day for its long, serious drama to unfold
  
• Bunraku, the manipulators appear openly, in full
  view of the audience. These two characteristics,
  which make it completely different from the other
  puppet theatre traditions

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The heads (kashira)

• Bunraku puppets are divided into male and female,
  
• classified into categories age, rank (social
  class) distinguishing personality traits of the
  role they portray
• same head might be used for different characters
  in different plays.
• they are even repainted to give the right skin
  tone, or the wig might be changed

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Mechanism of the Puppets' Heads

• The movement of the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth of
  the puppet heads is achieved by the main
  puppeteer
• by moving, with the fingers of his left hand, the
  levers attached to the dogushi stick in the
  doll's neck.
• If he moves the special little lever that is
  attached to the head with shamisen strings, the
  puppet's head can be made to nod up and down in
  time to the shamisen music

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Types of Heads
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Different male role Heads
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Female Heads
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Special Roles
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Puppet Costumes

• under robe (juban),
• inner kimono (kitsuke),
• outer jacket (haori) or outer robe (uchikake)
• the collar (eri),
• the belt-like sash (obi).

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Puppet Costumes

• puppeteers take part in what is called koshirae,
  or the dressing of the doll.
• When used on the stage, the robes' lose their
  bright colors, they become soiled, and in places
  they are even worn out

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Puppeteers Operation

• puppets were small and manipulated only by a
  single operator.
• But as time went by, improvements were made,
  such that by 1734 a plan was devised to have
  three operators per puppet.
• Two years later, the size of the dolls was
  doubled, making them close to the size used today
  (which is about 2/3 the height of the average
  person).

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Pics of Props
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A scene from Act 1 of Imoseyama Onna Teikin (An
Example of Noble Womanhood).
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Other vocab

• bachi - a large pick used to strike or pluck the
  three strings
• joruri - narrative style used in bunraku puppet
  theater
• gidayu - narrative style invented by Takemoto
  Gidayu (1651-1714)
• nagauta or naga-uta - long, lyrical songs
• minyo or min-yo - folk songs
• hon-choshi - a form of tuning - solemn
• niagari - a form of tuning - serene
• san-sagari - a form of tuning - melancholic