The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam proudly presents a Bunraku exchange and performance program “Traditional Puppet of Asia: BUNRAKU Meets ASEAN” by six young leaders of BUNRAKU Company from Osaka, Japan, at Vietnam Puppet Theater in Hanoi on 30 August 2014.(*)

Ranking with Noh and Kabuki as one of Japan’s foremost stage arts, the Ningyo Johruri Bunraku puppet theater (Bunraku) is a blend of sung narrative, instrumental accompaniment and puppet drama. The plots related in this new form of puppet theater derived from two principal sources: historical plays set in feudal times (Jidaimono) and contemporary dramas exploring the conflict between affairs of heart and social obligation(Sewamono). Ningyo Johruri had adopted its characteristic staging style by the mid eighteenth century with three puppeters, visible to the audience, manipulate large articulated puppets on the stage behind a waist high screen. From a projecting elevated platform (yuka), the narrator (tayu) recounts the action while a musician provides musical accompaniment on three-stringed spike lute (shamisen). To solely dubs all characters voice in a play, one tayu has to change different voices and intonations. Although the tayu “reads” from a scripted text, there is ample room for improvisation. Approximately 160 works out of the 700 plays written during the Edo period have remained in today’s repertory. Nowadays, the aesthetic qualities and dramatic content of the plays continue to appeal to modern audiences.

In 2013, to celebrate 40th anniversary of ASEAN Japan Friendship and Cooperation, Bunraku Puppet Theater, traditional puppet theater of Japan, was staged for the first time in South East Asia at Kuala Lumpur. It not only marked a historical first appearance in the region, but also paved a way to a new collaboration between Japan and ASEAN countries through traditional puppets.

This year 2014, young professionals of Bunraku Puppet Theater from Bunraku Company will tour to have joint-workshops, build network and exchange skill with local traditional puppet theater in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi.

The performance and exchange will be conducted at Vietnam Puppet Theater, 361 Truong Chinh, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi from 10:00 AM on 30 August 2014. Invitation ticket will be available from 12:00 on 18 August 2014 at The Japan Foundation Center Cultural Exchange in Vietnam 27 Quang Trung, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi.

Program

Synopsys of the extract 

Scene of “HINOMI YAGURA” from the story of “DATE MUSUME KOI NO HIGANOKO”

This story is based on the affairs which happened in Edo period, about 300 years ago.

Oshichi, a daughter of greengrocer was upset late at night because she found out the place of the sword which her lover Kichisaburo lost. He was about to commit seppuku for this mismanagement. She wanted to tell it to him immediately but she couldn’t go out from the city centrum because all the gates were closed during the night.

In Edo city (Tokyo, nowadays), gates around the city were closed and they were never opened till morning comes. Once closed, people couldn’t go through the gate. But gates were opened only when an alarm bells for a fire rang.

Oshichi had to go out from the city through the gate to see him!

Then, she caught her eyes a watch tower (HinomiYagura) by chance. She went up straight the tower and sounded an alarm bell to open the gates.

(Sounding an alarm bell when a fire doesn’t happen is also serious crime at that period)

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