Well, the shrine carrying festival is over, I’ve had my first trip to onsen (hot springs), but since Steve still has to size those pics, I’ll save my explanation of that weekend for later. For now, I’ll tell you about our first Bunraku play or Japanese Puppet play, that we saw on Sunday. For starters, it was 4 hrs long! Our friend Keiko got the tickets, so her and a friend joined us. Keiko’s not very into traditional Japanese culture, so I hope she wasn’t too bored!
The theater was beautiful and lined with red and white lanterns even though it’s indoors.
The atmosphere is very regal and traditional. Every play has a shamisen player and narrator sitting at the right of the stage. (See pic of the narrator, with a book of the play's story and an pic of a shamisen.)
A new narrator and player appear for every scene. (The way they switch is great. The pair is sitting with their backs to a wall and the wall actually turns around, like a secret chamber of an old library and poof! There’s the new pair suddenly sitting there.)
The plays are very slow and when they dim the lights and the narrator starts chanting in his drony voice and the shamisen player starts playing… well, let’s just say if you have insomnia, go to bunraku and you’ll have no trouble falling asleep. I was the only one in our group that didn’t nod off! I actually liked the play, but the atmosphere really makes you sleepy. If I had opera glasses or we were up closer it would have been much more interesting because the puppet’s mouth, eyes, and eyebrows all move! Even the fingers on the hands move! It takes 3 people to handle one puppet and an apprentice must practice for 10 years before he can perform with a puppet onstage.
The main puppeteer (operating the right arm and head) wears a kimono and the other 2 (operating the left arm and feet) are dressed completely in black, with pointy black hoods.
This is a scene from the play we saw where you can see them.
Yeah, kinda creepy! It was like watching a bunch of executioners wander around behind the puppets.
The main puppeteer didn’t help lighten the mood either- these men (they were all men) had the most deadpan faces I have ever seen.
The head puppeteer also wears these great wooden geta to make them taller and make it easier to manipulate the puppet.
Anyway, we saw one master puppeteer that has been doing this for decades and we also saw a narrator that was 81 years old and considered a ‘Living National Treasure’!
The story was about a double suicide between a geisha and a paper merchant. It was a true story taken from an incident in Osaka in the 1700’s and it was turned into a puppet play the very same year it happened! The Japanese was so old and convoluted that even Keiko couldn’t understand much of it. The writer was consider “Osaka’ Shakespeare”. The rest of us had headphone with an English translations. They were helpful, but very abbreviated.
After the performance we went to eat and wandered a little about the stores in Namba in Osaka. It really blows your mind how many shops there are. They really go for specialty stores so every tiny space is crammed with tiny shops. Anyway, it’s Thursday now, but I’m still tired from the long weekend (we had friends over on Sat and then out for another friend’s b-day that night, then up early for the play). I’ve got a bit of a cold, so I’m gonna rest!
If anyone’s interested to read more on bunraku, here’s a good website:
http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/
Ja!
Erin
The theater was beautiful and lined with red and white lanterns even though it’s indoors.
The atmosphere is very regal and traditional. Every play has a shamisen player and narrator sitting at the right of the stage. (See pic of the narrator, with a book of the play's story and an pic of a shamisen.)
A new narrator and player appear for every scene. (The way they switch is great. The pair is sitting with their backs to a wall and the wall actually turns around, like a secret chamber of an old library and poof! There’s the new pair suddenly sitting there.)
The plays are very slow and when they dim the lights and the narrator starts chanting in his drony voice and the shamisen player starts playing… well, let’s just say if you have insomnia, go to bunraku and you’ll have no trouble falling asleep. I was the only one in our group that didn’t nod off! I actually liked the play, but the atmosphere really makes you sleepy. If I had opera glasses or we were up closer it would have been much more interesting because the puppet’s mouth, eyes, and eyebrows all move! Even the fingers on the hands move! It takes 3 people to handle one puppet and an apprentice must practice for 10 years before he can perform with a puppet onstage.
The main puppeteer (operating the right arm and head) wears a kimono and the other 2 (operating the left arm and feet) are dressed completely in black, with pointy black hoods.
This is a scene from the play we saw where you can see them.
Yeah, kinda creepy! It was like watching a bunch of executioners wander around behind the puppets.
The main puppeteer didn’t help lighten the mood either- these men (they were all men) had the most deadpan faces I have ever seen.
The head puppeteer also wears these great wooden geta to make them taller and make it easier to manipulate the puppet.
Anyway, we saw one master puppeteer that has been doing this for decades and we also saw a narrator that was 81 years old and considered a ‘Living National Treasure’!
The story was about a double suicide between a geisha and a paper merchant. It was a true story taken from an incident in Osaka in the 1700’s and it was turned into a puppet play the very same year it happened! The Japanese was so old and convoluted that even Keiko couldn’t understand much of it. The writer was consider “Osaka’ Shakespeare”. The rest of us had headphone with an English translations. They were helpful, but very abbreviated.
After the performance we went to eat and wandered a little about the stores in Namba in Osaka. It really blows your mind how many shops there are. They really go for specialty stores so every tiny space is crammed with tiny shops. Anyway, it’s Thursday now, but I’m still tired from the long weekend (we had friends over on Sat and then out for another friend’s b-day that night, then up early for the play). I’ve got a bit of a cold, so I’m gonna rest!
If anyone’s interested to read more on bunraku, here’s a good website:
http://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/en/
Ja!
Erin
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