Bunraku
Bunraku is the classical Japanese theatrical form of doll theatre or what is more commonly referred to as puppetry. Bunraku developed in the early 15th century with plays mostly which were mostly legendary, historical, or heroic in nature. Unlike Noh, Bunraku plays were more secular in nature. Performances featured puppets which were each handled by one puppet master throughout the play. Bunraku plays were told through a vocally powerful narrator whose responsibility it was to communicate the emotional intensity and sensibility of the character puppets onstage. This narrator was usually a mature actor whose considerable years of experience and training gave him enormous stage presence before an audience. The narrator was usually onstage alongside a younger musician who played the classical Japanese string instrument samisen. Together the presence and pairing of both performers create a unique experience and performance element of Bunraku.
A discussion of Bunraku theatre is synonymous with playwright, Chikamatsu Monzemon. Born in 1653 to samurai parents, Chikamatsu became a major playwright for both the Bunraku and Kabuki theatres. To the delight of many, Chikamatsu created an entirely new literary genre known as townsfolk plays. His plays described the lives of his contemporaries and actual events. The most famous of these was the real life love suicide in May of 1703, in which a young merchant and a prostitute committed suicide at the Sonzezaki Shrine in Osaka. Chikamatsu just happened to be visiting the city at the time of the suicides and was so inspired that he immediately wrote his Bunraku play The Love Suicides at Sonezaki and produced it a month later. Chikamatsu felt that art exists between the real and the unreal, which is certainly evidenced through the play of puppets imitating real life tragic events of his plays.
Chikamatsu wrote for both Bunraku and Kabuki stage. He broke with the tradition of plots based on supernatural and supernatural and spectacular action. In the course of his career he produced more than a hundred Bunraku plays. Seventy-nine were classified as jidaimono (historical drama), which dealt with events in the lives of samurai and aristocrats. Twenty-four were classified as sewamono (domestic drama) since they depicted sensational events and scandals among commoners. (McDonald, 20)
Chikamatsu's popularity grew as he continued to create characters whose struggle to love was denied by their lack of freedom amidst the oppressive expectations of their society, culture, and class. The fates of his characters' lives were controlled by entities and powers outside themselves. Man is helpless against the will of society and utterly powerless in controlling his own fate. Chikamatsu created characters whose emotional struggle for freedom and love rendered them with no alternative but to seek the freedoms afforded by death. Irony lies in the theatrical nature of Bunraku; whereas puppets (characters) are literally controlled in every aspect throughout the play by their puppet masters right up to the final and ultimate scene of death. Regarded as Japan's literary answer to England's William Shakespeare, Chikamatsu's lover suicide plays inspired a sharp rise in lover suicides. These suicides became so prevalent that the government responded by actually making the act of suicide illegal.
Bunraku made several technical advancements during this time in regards to puppetry. Prior to the popularity of Chikamatsu's townsfolk plays, puppets were large enough to be seen by an audience yet small enough to be handled by one puppet master. Considerable advancements were made resulting in the puppets becoming ¾ actual human size with movable eyes and fingers. These advancements in puppetry made it necessary for three separate puppet masters to handle a single puppet at one time. The puppet master who controls the head is the lead master for that particular puppet. The additional two puppet masters control either side of the puppet enabling the puppet to perform various movements such as walking, dancing, etc. All puppet masters dress in black with their heads and faces covered in an especially thin black material. This is an artistic device of Bunraku which manipulates the audience's focus from the puppet master to the puppet itself.
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