Already in the Heian period (794-1185), itinerant puppeteers known as kugutsumawashi traveled around Japan playing door-to-door for donations. In this form of street entertainment, which continued up through the Edo period, the puppeteer manipulated two hand puppets on a stage that consisted of a box suspended from his neck.

A number of the kugutsumawashi are thought to have settled at Nishinomiya and on the island of Awaji, both near present-day Kobe. In the sixteenth century, puppeteers from these groups were called to Kyoto to perform for the imperial family and military leaders. It was around this time that puppetry was combined with the art of joruri.

A precursor of joruri can be found in the blind itinerant performers, called biwa hoshi, who chanted The Tale of the Heike, a military epic depicting the Taira-Minamoto War, while accompanying themselves on the biwa, a kind of lute. In the sixteenth century, the shamisen replaced the biwa as the instrument of choice, and the joruri style developed. The name joruri came from one of the earliest and most popular works chanted in this style, the legend of a romance between warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune and the beautiful Lady Joruri.

The art of puppetry combined with chanting and shamisen accompaniment grew in popularity in the early seventeenth century in Edo (now Tokyo), where it received the patronage of the shogun and other military leaders. Many of the plays at this time presented the adventures of Kimpira, a legendary hero renowned for his bold, outlandish exploits. It was in the merchant city of Osaka, however, that the golden age of ningyo joruri was inaugurated through the talents of two men: tayu (chanter) Takemoto Gidayu (1651-1714) and the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon.

After he opened the Takemotoza puppet theater in Osaka in 1684, Gidayu’s powerful chanting style, called gidayu-bushi, came to dominate joruri. Chikamatsu began writing historical dramas (jidai-mono) for Gidayu in 1685. Later he spent more than a decade writing mostly for kabuki, but in 1703 Chikamatsu returned to the Takemotoza, and from 1705 to the end of his life he wrote exclusively for the puppet theater. There has been much debate as to why Chikamatsu turned to writing for kabuki and then returned to bunraku, but this may have been the result of dissatisfaction with the relative position of the playwright and actor in kabuki. Famous kabuki actors of the day considered the play raw material to be molded to better display their own talents.

In 1703, Chikamatsu pioneered a new kind of puppet play, the domestic drama (sewa-mono), which brought new prosperity to the Takemotoza. Only one month after a shop clerk and a courtesan committed double suicide, Chikamatsu dramatized the incident in The Love Suicides at Sonezaki. The conflict between social obligations (giri) and human feelings (ninjo) found in this play greatly moved audiences of the time and became a central theme for bunraku.

Domestic dramas, such as Chikamatsu’s series of love-suicide plays, became a favorite subject for the puppet theater. Historical dramas, however, also continued to be popular and became more sophisticated as audiences came to expect the psychological depth found in the domestic plays. One example of this is Kanadehon Chushingura, perhaps the most famous bunraku play. Based on the true story of the 47 ronin (masterless samurai) incident of 1701-1703, it was first staged 47 years later in 1748. After drawing his sword in the Edo castle in response to insults by the Tokugawa shogun’s chief of protocol (Kira Yoshinaka), the feudal lord Asano Naganori was forced to commit suicide and his clan was disbanded.

The 47 loyal retainers carefully plotted and carried out their revenge by killing Kira nearly two years later. Even though many years had elapsed since the incident, playwrights still changed the time, location, and character names in order to avoid offending the Tokugawa shogun. This popular play was soon adapted to the kabuki stage and continues to be an important part of both repertoires.

Throughout the eighteenth century, bunraku developed in both a competitive and cooperative relationship with kabuki. At the individual role level, kabuki actors imitated the distinctive movements of bunraku puppets and the chanting style of the tayu, while puppeteers adapted the stylistic flourishes of famous kabuki actors to their own performances. At the play level, many bunraku works, especially those of Chikamatsu, were adapted for kabuki, while lavish kabuki-style productions were staged as bunraku.

Gradually eclipsed in popularity by kabuki, from the late 18th century bunraku went into commercial decline and theaters closed one by one until only the Bunraku-za was left. Since World War II, bunraku has had to depend on government support for its survival, although its popularity has been increasing in recent years. Under the auspices of the Bunraku Association, regular performances are held today at the National Theater in Tokyo and the National Bunraku Theater in Osaka. Bunraku performance tours have been enthusiastically received in cities around the world.

Tag: Bunraku