How can several performers create one puppet character?
In bunraku, the character an audience follows is produced through coordinated work. Puppeteers move the figure, a narrator supplies voices and narration, and shamisen music helps shape the scene. A single apparent action can therefore depend on several performers contributing different kinds of information.
Questions you could explore
- How do movement, voice, and music share the work of conveying an emotion?
Start reading
- Agency for Cultural AffairsWhat is Japanese puppet theatre? Fun with puppets for the family during summer
Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs introduces the combined arts of bunraku.
- Japan Arts CouncilInvitation To BUNRAKU: Puppeteer
The Japan Arts Council explains the puppeteers’ roles and coordination.
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