Due to the highly developed sense of drama and musicality of its gidayuu (narrative ballad with shamisen accompaniment), bunraku, Japan’s traditional puppet theatre, is renowned throughout the world as an outstanding performing art.

Bunraku was originally known as ningyo joruri (puppet theatre). But following the great success of a bunraku theatre that Uemura Bunrakuken opened in Osaka in the 19th century, the local form of puppet theatre came to be known as bunraku. Of the various ningyo joruri traditions that continue in various parts of the country, Tokushima is particularly famous and is also home to some 100 farm-village theatres designed for puppet drama.

I traveled to Tokushima to reexamine ningyo joruri, which has been passed down for hundreds of years in the area, after learning that a movement to transmit the tradition to the next generation was gaining momentum. In this report, I would like to present some historical background on puppet theatre as well as the attempts that are being made to create a new style of joruri.

The birth of puppet theatre can be traced to the 16th century. Puppeteers at Nishinomiya Shrine known as ebisukaki joined forces with dramatic storytellers, and after adding shamisen accompaniment, which had its roots in the Ryukyu Islands, launched a new type of entertainment. The form enjoyed popularity in Kyoto and Osaka as an amusement, but was also transmitted from Nishinomiya (Hyogo Prefecture) to Awaji Island as a Shinto ritual, and as shrines had their own property, many puppet theatres were built within them. In 1615, the territory of Awaji Island was awarded to the feudal lord of Tokushima, Hachisuka Ko, in recognition of his distinguished service in the Summer Seige in Osaka, and puppet theatre was transmitted on to Tokushima and due in part to the domain’s protectionist policies, the form enjoyed great development. In the Meiji Period, puppet drama reached its prime, but in the early Showa Period, interest in the tradition died down due to the constrained lifestyle that people were forced to endure during the war and the diversification of entertainment and amusements, and temporarily fell into decline. In recent years, however, a movement to reexamine this great cultural resource has emerged.

In October 2009, an event called “Awa Ningyo Joruri Month: 100 Performances” was held. As the title suggests, over the period of a month, 100 puppet-drama performances were given throughout Tokushima Prefecture at old farm-village theatres and at reproductions of old-fashioned temporary theatres. The festival also featured collaborations with other types of performing arts.

Yoshida Kanroku, a bunraku puppeteer and director of the Mokugusha puppet theatre served as coordinator for the event. His own productions at the festival included an improvisational bunraku project called “Ashita no tame ni” (For Tomorrow)1, “Kirishitohoro shoninden” (The Life of St. Christopher), based on a story by Akutagawa Ryunosuke2, and “Onnagoroshi abura no jigoku” (The Woman Killer and the Hell of Oil), which fused rock music with bunraku.3 In its original form, ningyo joruri consisted of a high-precision cooperative effort between gidayuu, which explained the plot in song form, shamisen accompaniment, and three puppeteers who manipulated their figures as the story unfolded. For this special project, however, the powerful vocal style of singer/songwriter UA was juxtaposed with the unique tone-color of the shamisen and the mellow sound of steel pans, and in front of a fantastic set designed by the artist Nakazato Erosu, Yoshida’s puppets danced across the stage in time with the melody. In “Kirishitohoro shoninden,” along with Takemoto Komanosuke’s contemporary style of colloquial ballad-recitation (a recorded version was used in the actual performance), the noh performer Oe Nobuyuki played the protagonist, Daidatta, in a collaboration with the puppets. Seemingly lost in an unfamiliar space, I felt as if I was being given a glimpse of a new type of puppet theatre.

Yoshida was born in Ikeda-cho (now part of Miyoshi), Tokushima. After having an opportunity to use the puppets in the folk art club at his high school, he entered Waseda University to pursue an interest in contemporary drama. But just at that time, the Waseda Little Theatre, which was at the forefront of the little theatre movement, relocated from Tokyo to Toyama, making it impossible for Yoshida to join the group. Not long after, he quit school and joined the National Bunraku Theatre as a trainee at the age of 21. There, he perfected his technique as a puppeteer, but in his late 30s, Yoshida developed an interest in rural puppet theatre, and became involved in educating people about the tradition. In the process, he began to help preserve traditional arts in his home region of Tokushima, and in addition, formed a team to explore other possibilities for bunraku puppets through collaborations with different genres of music and theatre, staging performances both in halls and outdoors.

In the “Awa Ningyo Joruri Month: 100 Performances” event, several performances were staged at revived farm-village theatres in which Yoshida also made a substantial contribution, assisting in everything from building the stage to providing instruction in puppeteering. Though local residents voiced concerns prior to the event, after Yoshida visited the area and engaged in passionate explanations and discussions regarding the plan, he received their consent to revive the tradition, and was then faced with the difficult task of teaching people how to operate the puppets from scratch. But the residents were quickly won over by his earnest and enthusiastic approach, and the stage was set for these revival performances. This in turn motivated Yoshida to further publicize this regional asset and convey the importance of maintaining ties in the area.

Of his recent work in Tokushima, Yoshida says, “Tokushima expressed a need for me, so I have merely responded in kind. I hope this will lead to an open forum in which people can speak freely about puppet theatre.” Yoshida also emphasizes that “in order for puppet theatre with three puppeteers to be accepted in the present day, it must reflect our society and emotional climate. We have to think about what to convey to people and how to reflect contemporary society – these are things that theatre has yet to come to grips with. Innovations are necessary in classical art forms, and simply resigning one’s self to a traditional approach is not enough.”

To Yoshida, it isn’t enough for bunraku and ningyo joruri to be classical forms, they must also be meaningful as theatre. And as a stage performer who takes great pride in his work, he is committed to introducing new innovations to traditional arts.

The “Awa Ningyo Joruri Month: 100 Performances” event also presented numerous traditional puppet-theatre performances at Tokushima’s extant farm-village theatres. One of these was the Inukai Farm-Village Theatre.

Located south-southwest of Tokushima in Hata-cho in an area known for its mandarin-orange cultivation (on the sloping hills that are chiefly used for growing rice), Goh Shrine, the theatre hosts puppet dramas every fall.

In the Edo Period, Tokushima enjoyed great prosperity after its special product, indigo dyeing, came to be distributed throughout the country. During the same period, a puppet theatre from Awaji Island was invited to perform at a village along the Yoshino River. But as other farming regions in Tokushima couldn’t afford to host these shows, the villagers began performing there own puppet dramas as a religious and entertainment event. At the height of this trend, between the late Edo and early Meiji Period, there were close to 300 such theatres in the prefecture.

At a typical performance, a ceremonial song called “Shikisanbaso” and the locally-themed drama “Keisei Awa no Naruto” (The Tragedy of Awa)4 would be followed by the main attraction of fusuma karakuri. In this tradition, designated as an intangible folk cultural asset by the city of Tokushima, shrine parishioners would change the stage backdrops in rapid succession to create a unique performance. Painted in perspective, the over 130 fusuma, including landscapes, animals, flowers, and patterns, created 42 scenes in an ever-changing display of color that remained riveting until the very end.

The Inukai Farm-Village Theatre was built in 1873. It played an important role as a focal point in the community, which had prospered due to the forest industry and mandarin oranges. Later, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with the shift to fossil fuel and the liberalization of farming that led to welcome changes in the regional economy, performances at the theatre ceased for a time. But after renewed interest among the local residents, and the forming of a preservation society, they were revived in 1976. In recognition of these efforts, the tradition was designated as an intangible folk cultural asset by the national government in 1998, received the Suntory Regional Culture Award, and earned widespread attention.

Shibahara Takaaki, the director of the Inukai Farm-Village Theatre Preservation Society, stresses that he’d like to have more local people become involved in preserving the tradition: “At the moment, the society consists of 17 shrine parishioners and other interested parties from the village, but almost all of the members are over 60, so finding others to carry on our work is an important concern. I’d like to create a feeling of enjoyment and deeper understanding by continuing the old tradition of having local youth groups become more active in puppet theatre, and enjoy eating and drinking at the theatre during the fall festival every year. To help get rid of the idea that puppet theatre is stiff and formal, it’s vital to have all of the local people participate.”

Under the leadership of Governor Iizumi Kamon, Tokushima declared itself a “culture prefecture” in 2008, and since that time, a special effort has been made to promote cultural activities. Plans are also underway to choose one regional cultural resource, such as “No. 9 (The Site of the First Performance of Beethoven’s Famous Symphony in Japan),” puppet theatre, indigo dyeing, and Awa-odori (traditional festival dancing), as the theme for an annual event. Last year’s project, the “Awa Ningyo Joruri Month: 100 Performances” event, was preceded in 2008 by a festival celebrating the 90th anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Sato Kenji, assistant section chief of the Tokushima Department of International Culture, who was the local government representative in the puppet theatre project, points out that kadozuke, the tradition of distributing luck by passing a puppet from house to house continues even today, and some 800 households still take part in the ritual. In addition, many local residents are familiar with Keisei Awa no Naruto, in particular the climax of the drama, “Stage of the Pilgrim Song,” and automatically respond with enthusiastic shouts and applause. The government’s role is to engage in regional promotional activities that will invigorate and help maintain culture that is rooted in the region. In this event, we were aiming for a two-pronged approach in which along with receiving public recognition for Yoshida Kanroku’s fantastic productions and helping people become more familiar with puppet theatre, we provided a place where local residents could pursue the same sort of objective.”

While cultural promotion often focuses on building splendid halls and museums, or presenting events that have actually originated in a large city, Tokushima’s approach to make the most of the regional culture that has accumulated over many years in the area, is clearly an attempt to distinguish the prefecture as a unique entity in itself. Among the questions that remain, however, are, how to foster successors when, with younger people continuing to leave the area, the society continues to age; how to attract more viewers; and whether it will be possible to continue the “Awa Ningyo Joruri Month: 100 Performances” event again this year. There is no shortage of things to think about, but as a model for regional revitalization through culture, the projects currently underway in Tokushima hold great promise.

Born in Miyoshi, Tokushima, Yoshida is a bunraku puppeteer. In order to further pursue the potential of puppet theatre, he has staged collaborations with jazz and Okinawan folk musicians, and noh performers, and organized events that transcend the theatre framework and extend into the outdoors. He also provides instruction at puppet theatres throughout the country, including those in Kanagawa, Kyoto, Aichi, and Tokushima. In addition to working as a part-time instructor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, he served as the coordinator of the “22nd Citizens’ Culture Festival Tokushima 2007: Theatre Kingdom Festival” as well as the “Awa Ningyo Joruri Month: 100 Performances” event, and continues to put great effort into spreading puppet drama in his home region of Tokushima.

(English translation by Christopher Stephens)