Bunraku
Bunraku ( Jap. 文楽 ; also: 人形浄瑠璃 Ningyo Jōruri ) is a traditional , Japanese form of puppet theater . In terms of content, Bunraku and Kabuki take up similar themes, because both are forms of theater that arose from the same social class. Bunraku was added to the UNESCO List of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005 and was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 .
character
Bunraku shares many themes with contemporary kabuki. Several pieces have been adapted for both types of theater. Bunraku is particularly known for tragic love stories that end in suicide ( Shinjū ). The story of the 47 ronin is also known in Bunraku and Kabuki.
Bunraku is an author theater. Before the performance, the reciter holds the text up and bows to it. With this he promises to be faithful to him. Kabuki, on the other hand, is an actor's theater in which the actors can insert jokes, improvisations, references to current affairs, etc. into the play.
Historical background
The theater form originated in Ōsaka in 1684 when Takemoto Gidayū founded his theater there. It was named after the puppeteer Uemura Bunrakuken.
Later the bunraku was largely supplanted by kabuki and suffered from a lack of competent authors for new pieces.
The best known Bunraku author was Chikamatsu Monzaemon . With more than 100 plays attributed to him, he is sometimes called the " Shakespeare of Japan".
Today, Bunraku has the status of untouchable cultural heritage from the Japanese government and is particularly promoted. Bunraku performers and puppet makers can also be declared “Living Cultural Treasures” under Japan's program to preserve its traditional culture.
The dolls
The biggest differentiator to western figure or puppet theater is the size and operation of the puppets. The puppeteers operate the puppets with the help of handles attached to the puppets. A main actor needs 3 puppeteers to operate: the most respected player operates the head and right arm, a second the left arm and the third the legs.
The dolls are at least half to about 4/5 life size, often around 1.5 m high and their mechanical structure can be quite complicated. In plays on supernatural subjects, the doll can be used e.g. B. be constructed so that your face can be quickly transformed into the face of a monster.
The puppeteers
The puppeteers can be seen on stage all the time during the performance and are themselves dressed in black kimonos and hoods, but do not speak a word.
In a good performance, the puppeteers become “invisible” and the audience's attention is drawn to the puppets. Some masterful puppeteers remove their hoods during the performance, knowing that the audience is too focused on the performance to be distracted.
The tayu
The tayū ( 太 夫 ) is the reciter in a bunraku piece. In the course of the piece he tells the story in a slightly melodic way with a powerful voice.
He speaks the texts of all actors and uses techniques such as different pitches to distinguish the individual characters. The recitation style requires years of training and is very strenuous for the reciter due to the high body tension . Since the pieces often last several hours, the reciters take turns within a performance. The reciter sits close to the shamisen player on a rotating platform, the yuka, which is turned from time to time to bring the reciter to the front for the next scene.
The Shamisen Players
The shamisen is a type of lute that is played by men who always sit next to the tayu (s). It has a different sound than the usual shamisen, it is lower in mood and has a fuller tone.
Ningyō Jōruri
Bunraku is also called Ningyō Jōruri ( 人形 浄 瑠 璃 ). Ningyō ( 人形 ) is the Japanese word for doll. Jōruri ( 浄 瑠 璃 ) denotes the combination of reciting the Tayū and playing the Shamisen.
Current theater troupes
Osaka is the seat of the state-sponsored National Bunraku Theater . The company puts on five or more productions a year, each running for two to three weeks in Osaka and then in the National Theater in Tokyo , and also tours Japan and occasionally abroad.
By the late 19th century, there were hundreds of professional, semi-professional, and amateur troops across Japan. Since the end of the Second World War, the number has fallen to less than 30, most of which only give one or two performances a year, often in connection with local festivals. A few regional troops are more active. The Awaji Puppet Theater on the island of Awaji southwest of Kobe shows daily short performances and also longer shows at its own venue and has performed in the USA, Russia and other countries. The Shiga Prefecture's Tonda Traditional Bunraku Puppet Troupe , founded in the 1830s, has toured the United States and Australia five times and has been active in Japan as hosting academic programs for American students wishing to learn Bunraku. The Imada Puppet Theater (which was in France and Taiwan on tour) and Kuroda puppet theater are in town Iida in the prefecture of Nagano home. Both troops look back on a 300-year history, give regular performances and are active in training a new generation of traditional puppeteers.
Others
A further development of the Bunraku is the Black Theater , which was made famous in the 1960s by the Laterna Magica theater group in Prague.
Takeshi Kitano's film Dolls shows three stories about eternal love that moves people like dolls, which is also underlined by the stylized staging. A Bunraku performance forms the framework plot.
Web links
- Bunraku - Traditional Puppet Theater (English)
- Bunraku / Ningyō Jōruri on japan-photo.de (photos)
- Japan in the theater museum
- Bunraku on factsanddetails.com (English, with images and detailed explanations)
Individual evidence
- ^ Bunraku - Traditional Puppet Theater at artelino.com, accessed February 27, 2015.
- ↑ a b A Brief Introduction to the History of Bunraku , at sagecraft.com, accessed on February 27, 2015.
- ↑ Japan at theaterfigurenmuseum.de, accessed on February 27, 2015.
- ↑ Bunraku Theater at die-japanreise.de, accessed on February 27, 2015.