Bunraku in Berkeley 10/13 -14/2007

[Saionji Shonagon]

Why yes, I WILL blow off October Crown to attend this.
www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/season/2007/theater/bptj.php

Bunraku, Japan's centuries-old form of puppet theater, combines three distinct and highly refined artistic disciplines: joruri, or ballad narration, shamisen instrumental music, and ningyo tsukai, or the art of puppet manipulation. Each of these skills demands years of intense training (it is said to take at least 25 years to attain the status of omozukai, the main puppet master). But the true magic of bunraku is revealed when the three independent components of movement, words, and music come together—it is this awe-inspiring ensemble work that evokes such deep emotion and wonder. This is extraordinary, multidimensional performance, displaying complexities not found in any other theater in the world. In a major cultural event, Japan's foremost exponent of this singular living art form—a company that includes four "Living National Treasures"—visits the United States for the first time since 1983.

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Program: Date Musume Koi no Higanoko (Oshichi of the Fire Watch Tower) (1773), Tsubosaka Kannon Reigenki (Miracle at the Tsubosaka Kannon Temple) (1887), and an introduction to bunraku

[solveig]

Noble Cousin!

Greetings from Solveig!

makiwara said:

Why yes, I WILL blow off October Crown to attend this.
www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/season/2007/theater/bptj.php

Do you have crash space?

[Saionji Shonagon]

solveig said:

Do you have crash space?

Yes, but you know what happens when matter and antimatter use the same bathroom.....

[Saionji Shonagon]

I will be attending a pre-performance lecture on the history, culture and aesthetics of bunraku this evening.

Whoo hoo.

[Saionji Shonagon]

After some cheap but good Indian food at Naan'n'Curry, Urtatim and I attended a pre-performance lecture last night in conjunction with the appearances of the Imperial Puppet Theatre of Japan this weekend at Cal Berkeley.

1.Take three talking head gaijin:
* The Boston Japan Society's Peter Grilli, acting as moderator and translator.
* UC Berkeley's Dr. Mary Elizabeth Berry (Chair, Department of History), who managed to overuse finger "quotes" in the first three sentences of her quick'n'dirty overview of the Edo period.
* Doctoral candidate Janice Kanemitsu of the frustratingly poor resolution woodblock prints on Powerpoint and the frustratingly nervous and forced delivery of a rather unilluminating summary of Bunraku aesthetics. She's probably very good at what she does, but she needs a lot more mileage as a lecturer.

2. Then add Living National Treasures. I am appalled, ashamed and mortified that Grilli blew through introductions of the tayu (narrator), shamisen player and master puppeteers in such a way that their names are completely lost - and appear NOWHERE ON THE SYMPOSIA ANNOUNCEMENT! One hopes the performance programme will be more illuminating.

EDIT: We have names now. I have added them below:

The artists demo'ed their various specialties, speaking through Grilli, who was, at one point shouted out of the sightline of one lecture attendee. (Good for her, I thought!)

Toyotake Rosutayu, the tayu, an animated young man who talked with his hands a lot, demonstrated the vocal styles he employs to present the dialogue of male, female and child characters. These characterizations are stylized stereotypes that would be familiar to Japanese theatregoers, passed on by oral tradition, not unlike those used by male kabuki actors portraying female characters, for example. Or Frank Oz. Ms. Piggy does not really sound like a female, but we understand that she is because of the way Oz voices her.

Despite the fact that I do not speak Japanese, I actually understood a bit of the shamisen player Toyosawa Tomisuke's demo, between gestures, a few Japanese words I DO know and the effects he produced while playing.

And then Yoshida Kazuo, the puppet master came out. Armed at first with only a male puppet head, he showed how simple leverage with string and levers manipulated movement of the head. Male puppets have articulation to move eyes and eyebrows, while female puppets do not. The joints in the wood which permit the articulated faces of the male characters would spoil their beauty. We got to see the masters operate puppets with their assistants. The master operates the head and right arm of the puppet, one man operates the left arm and a third moves the feet (for male puppets) or kimono skirts (for females). To allow the foot puppeteer to work more easily, the master wears very high geta, the ha (teeth) wrapped with straw.

The incredible coordination and subtlety of three puppeteers working a single puppet is amazing. During the Q&A, the lady puppet was making eye contact and pointing to various audience members as they were recognized and allowed to pose their questions.

We were also permitted to see a short scene between a blind husband who suspects his wife of infidelity when in fact she has been sneaking out to pray for him at the temple, and one in which a wild haired samurai tells of a great battle.

I am totally stoked about going to the performance on Sunday!

[Saionji Shonagon]

Wow. Just - wow.

Datemusumune Koi no Higanoko - Hinomi Yagura no Dan (Oshishi's Burning Love - The Fire Watchtower) by Suga Sensuke, Matsuda Wakichi and Wakatake Fuemi from 1775.
Tayu (chanters): Toyotake Rosetayu and Takemoto Aikodayu
Shamisen: Toyosawa Tomisuke, Takezawa Dango, Toyosawa Ryouji
Master puppeteer: Yoshida Seizaburo (and unnamed assistants)

Sixteen year old Oshichi has fallen in love with a handsome samurai named Kichisaburo who has lost a treasured heirloom sword and is sentenced to die. She recovers it but is unable to leave the city because of the curfew. Knowing the penalty is death, she climbs the fire tower to ring a false alarm in a desperate effort to reach him. (Crappy resolution video from Youtube of Oshichi climbing the ladder.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvsSTrJ2Jko&mode=related&search=
"She races off on her final journey - and into legend!"

Tsubosaka Kannon Reigenki - Saiwachi Uchi Yori Yama (Miracle at the Tsubosaka Kannon Temple - Sawaichi's House and the Mountain)

Tayu: Takemoto Tsukomadayu
Shamisen: Takezawa Danshichi, Takezawa Dango
Puppeteers: Yoshida Kazuo (performing Osato), Yoshida Tamame (performing Sawaichi).

Blinded by disease, Sawaichi notices his wife slips out of the house every night before dawn and accuses her of meeting a lover. She explains that she visits the temple daily to pray to Kannon, Goddess of Mercy to restore his sight. Moved by her devotion, Sawaichi agrees to go with her to pray and fast. Osato leaves him at the shrine to run home for a few things. Sawaichi, believing he is too great a burden on his wife, throws himself from the cliff in her absence. Osato returns, sensing something amiss, sees Sawaichi's abandoned staff and zori and then looks down to see his body in the gorge. In despair, she leaps to her death. Moved by the devotion of the pair, Kannon the Merciful brings them back to life and restores Sawaichi's sight. The play ends with the couple singing and dancing with joy and praise of Kannon.

Within moments the presence of the puppeteers became secondary and I was drawn into the action. Young Oshichi's frantic resolution and desperate climb up an icy ladder in the snow was utterly magical.

I gazed in delight as Osato "threaded" a needle and sewed kimono, biting thread with a dainty jerk of her head. I sighed in awe as her blind husband played a shamisen - his hand movements in perfect synch with the live musician seated at the side of the stage. By the time Sawaichi removed his zori and crawled along the cliff side feeling for the edge, my heart was with them.

Absolutely amazing!

Texts from the plays in English can be found here:
www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/section/synopsis/show/137069

[Imagawa Tadamori]

I got curious and followed your YouTube link to see what it was that fascinated you so much about puppets. I watched the video you linked to, as well as several other bunraku videos that were there (including one explaining what bunraku is and why it is practiced - including one that had a demonstration much like you described) and I have to say that it was much more interesting than I figured it would be / originally gave it credit for.

It was kind of cool, actually, once I got into it. The facial and costume detail was astounding. The puppets just seemed to take on a life of their own. I liked little touches like the falling snow, too.

Makiwara-dono, consider me a convert. Thank you for sharing the information.

- Rich

[Saionji Shonagon]

rich said:

.....I have to say that it was much more interesting than I figured it would be / originally gave it credit for.

I know. "Puppet" often gets equated with "for kids." However, this art form was a wildly popular entertainment during the Edo period. You would take an entire day, a bundle of food and a bottle and a bunch of friends and see several plays over the course of the performance: jidaimono (historical plays of famous events or battles) and sewamono (plays about everyday people). The heroine of the Fire Tower story, for example, is not a noble lady, but the daughter of a greengrocer. The couple in the miracle play are humble country folk.

Playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon wrote for both kabuki and bunraku and he preferred puppets to vain actors who twisted his words and showed off before audiences instead of devoting themselves to telling his stories. Puppets get on with it!

The narration style and musical accompaniment can be unfamiliar to Western ears, but it's the action, played out by the puppets, that suck you into the story.