The plays can be divided into two categories, jidaimono or “historical plays” and sewamono or “domestic” plays, which recount the fates of ordinary people. The Playsīunraku and its contemporaneous sister art form, sensational kabuki, share the same repertoire to a great extent. Osaka’s Bunraku-za or Bunraku Theatre is still the centre of the art form, although performances can also be seen at the National Theatre of Tokyo. There the tradition was continued during the Meiji period and further on until our times. He founded his own puppet theatre in Osaka in 1871, and he gave the art form, originally called ningyo joruri, its present name, bunraku. The continuation of the tradition was, however, ensured by a prolific bunraku artist, Masai Kahei (1737–1810), with the stage name of Ueamura Bunrakuken. Kabuki, however, was able to maintain its popularity and it included in its repertoire many plays originally written for bunraku. The decline in bunraku’s popularity began during the early Meiji period (1868–1912), when Westernised forms of entertainment became fashionable. He became fed up, however, with kabuki’s commercial and erotic populism and started to write plays for bunraku. Among them was Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724), who originally wrote plays for the sensational kabuki theatre. It was of the utmost importance for bunraku’s popularity that leading dramatists wrote plays for its repertoire. Their mechanism became so delicate and complex that three puppeteers were required to manipulate one puppet. During the early 18 th century the originally rather small puppets grew to their present dimensions. The new form of puppetry, bunraku, the result of the fusion of three art forms, reached its artistic peak in the early 17 th century. Shamisen, a plucked instrument, which was adopted from China, became the most fashionable instrument of the Edo period. A third group of artists, who participated in this creation of a new art form, were shamisen players. The storytellers narrated tales about famous battles of the feudal period.īunraku, or hingyo joruri, as it was originally called, evolved when puppeteers and storytellers began co-operating by the end of the 16 th century. Another form of art, similarly practised by travelling artists, was storytelling. They used simple, one-man-operated puppets. Written evidence exists from the Heian period 794–1185 that mentions travelling groups of puppeteers. When contacts with China were established in the 7 th century, puppetry was also adopted from there, among other cultural elements. It is believed that it has its roots in ancient rites in which puppets served as representatives of deceased persons. The plays include heartbreaking tragedies and represent Japanese dramatic literature of the highest order. MiettinenĮither the stories are taken from the story collections depicting the bloody wars of Japan’s feudal period or they focus on the fates of townspeople in the Edo period. A man with a child at bunraku rehearsals at the National Bunraku Theatre Jukka O.
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