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the puppet as a figure of the other final P PIRIS 2013 - Central ...

the puppet as a figure of the other final P PIRIS 2013 - Central ...

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Bunraku is conceived <strong>as</strong> a traditional form <strong>of</strong> performance.I will refer to Bunraku in this <strong>the</strong>sis only to discuss its <strong>puppet</strong>ry element. InBunraku, each <strong>puppet</strong> is manipulated by three <strong>puppet</strong>eers (ningyozukai). The latter aredressed in black and two <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m are hooded. The hierarchy is very strict among <strong>the</strong>three <strong>puppet</strong>eers. The m<strong>as</strong>ter-<strong>puppet</strong>eer (omozukai), who is not hooded, is in charge <strong>of</strong><strong>the</strong> head and <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> right hand, ano<strong>the</strong>r operator (hidarizukai) <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> left arm and <strong>the</strong>props and <strong>final</strong>ly <strong>the</strong> third (<strong>as</strong>hizukai) <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> legs.The discovery <strong>of</strong> Bunraku by Westerners happened in <strong>the</strong> first half <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>twentieth century through <strong>the</strong> writings <strong>of</strong> novelists and travellers. One <strong>of</strong> its mostprominent admirers w<strong>as</strong> <strong>the</strong> playwright Paul Claudel who discovered Bunraku in <strong>the</strong>1920s when he w<strong>as</strong> <strong>the</strong> French amb<strong>as</strong>sador in Japan. In 1926 he published an essayabout Bunraku in L’Oiseau Noir dans le Soleil Levant, a collection <strong>of</strong> his memories <strong>of</strong>Japan (quoted in Gilles 1981: 94). This essay seems to have left a strong impression on<strong>the</strong>atre-makers. It w<strong>as</strong> cited many years later by French <strong>the</strong>atre director Jean-LouisBarrault in an article originally published in Cahiers Renaud-Barrault which depicts hisown experience <strong>of</strong> a Bunraku performance in Osaka in 1960 (Barrault 2011).After World War Two, Western scholars such <strong>as</strong> Donald Keene and BarbaraCurtis Adachi studied Japanese culture and history and rediscovered Bunraku.Subsequently, books were published which gave a wider exposure to <strong>the</strong> form. RolandBar<strong>the</strong>s dedicated a chapter to Bunraku in his book on Japan entitled L’Empire desSignes, first published in 1970. In <strong>the</strong> 1980s Bunraku companies were also invited toperform in international festivals where <strong>the</strong>y raised a lot <strong>of</strong> interest amongst <strong>the</strong>atremakers.Nowadays Bunraku is an inspiration for a number <strong>of</strong> contemporary artistsinvolved in <strong>puppet</strong>ry even though most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m have probably never watched a Bunrakuperformance. It is usually a second-hand experience in <strong>the</strong> sense that <strong>the</strong>y have been46

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