Banraku originated in 1684 in Osaka, so where better than the Osaka National Banraku theatre to check it out.
Show: IMOSEYAMA ONNA TEIKIN
Summary: A bit of a Romeo and Juliette style show where the Emperor manages to defeat the wicked Iruka
No camera's were allowed in the show, so we will try to convey the gist of it. The puppets are really intricate and have removable heads, so costume changes are pretty fast as they swap a body, a head, or grab a new puppet.
They are about a meter tall, here are some slightly smaller ones. On stage it takes three people to operate each puppet and they move so well together it is like a dance.
The puppeteers are dressed completely in black, even with hoods over their faces. so they are almost shadows, and you don't notice them. The only ones with their faces shown are Master Puppeteers who have trained for 20 years. They take in people straight from junior high to train them, otherwise they are considered too old. Long hours and poor pay according to our audio player in the break, so only two people have joined in the last 4 years, so a dying cultural art. - Such a shame.
They wear these on their feet, a Japanese lady tried to get Ryan to try one on... Not a chance, they are about half the size of his feet!
To the side of the puppet show, the entire audio is chanted/sung alongside someone playing the shamisen, one of these:
The shows are a little bit special, as we saw plenty of people wearing Kimono's and formal dress. It seemed very popular to buy the special food on offer.
The stage was quite big, and not too many rows, so we could see everything really well.
A few images of similar shows (not ours though!)
