Leiter S.L. Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre

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PROPERTIES: BUNRAKU AND KABUKI • 311

nibanme mono, sanbanme mono, yobanme mono,andgobanme

mono. Using yet another system of terms to designate the categories,

ﬁrst group plays are called waki no

or kami no

, second group plays

are shura no

or otoko no

, third group plays are kazura no

or onna no

fourth group plays are zatsu no

, and ﬁfth group plays are kiri no

kichiku no

. The reason for the term waki no

is disputed but the others

are, in order, warrior no

or male no

, wig no

or women no

, miscellane-

ous no

(there are several subcategories), and ending no

or demon no

In the jo-ha-kyu

arrangement, the ﬁrst group conformed to the jo

part of the program, the next three to the ha, and the ﬁnal group to

the kyu

, a practice followed throughout the Edo period and still the

goal of all no

programs, no matter how abbreviated. When this sys-

tem was established is not cer tain but it is nowhere mentioned in

Zeami’s writings. See also PLAY CATEGORIES: KYO

GEN.

Programs of no

are available on most no

stages once or twice a

month, in addition to special programs given at other times. Occa-

sionally, two or more schools will participate in the same program.

Some programs are made up only of concert recitals of no

and kyo

gen in

which

some of the usual production elements may or may not

be provided, depending on the type of presentation.

PROPERTIES: BUNRAKU AND KABUKI. Hand props are kodo

‘‘small props,’’ in contrast to scenery,whichiso

gu (‘‘large

props’’). Bunraku uses far fewer hand props than kabuki but those it

does use are similar to kabuki’s although usually smaller to suit the

size of the puppets. Props are classed as:

• mochido

gu: hand props and accessories like weapons, armor

(yoroi), fans, medicine cases, purses, and certain headgear.

• dedo

gu: scenic props, include furniture, artwork, screens, reli-

gious statuary, etc.

• kie mono: things used up at each performance, including food.

• koware mono: props broken or destroyed in performance, such

as plates and teacups.

• nuigurumi: animal costumes for dogs, rats, tigers, etc.

• haki mono:(see FOOTGEAR).

• nori mono: vehicles, wheeled and carried, including portable

shrines (mikoshi), ox-carts, and palanquins (kago).

• shikake: a wide variety of trick or specially rigged props.

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312 • PROPERTIES: KYO

GEN

Hon mono are props that resemble their real-life counterpar ts;

koshirae mono are those that are created purely for the theatre, nota-

ble by their emphatic colors, shapes, or sizes.

PROPERTIES: KYO

GEN. Most kyo

gen props are similar to those in

,bothtsukuri mono (‘‘constructed props’’) and kodo

gu (‘‘hand

props’’); kyo

gen, moreover, uses fewer props than no

.(See PROPER-

TIES: NO

.) In contrast to no

, the standard writings on kyo

gen fail

to differentiate clearly regarding which props are tsukuri mono and

kodo

gu. Kodo

gu, which are mainly real or seemingly real items,

include many items of ever yday use, such as farm implements,

gourds, chopping boards, large Chinese fans, fox-trappin g sna res,

gambler’s dice, acupuncture needles and mallets, and butcher knives.

The lacquered cask (kazura oke) used most often as a seat can also

represent a sugar barrel, a tea box, a sake keg, a water barrel, and, in

one unusual use, a tree that a mountain ascetic climbs. Its lid fre-

quently is employed as an oversized sake cup.

Even more versatile is the fan, which can suggest a myriad of

things and actions. Some plays have rather unusual props. One is the

yagura, a miniature fortress—with tiny ﬂags and crests—worn

around the neck of the shite in Hige Yagura to prevent his wife and

his friends—who attack with halberds, pitchforks, scythes, and a

huge pair of tweezers—from plucking out his beard.

PROPERTIES: NO

. Called no

no do

gu in the aggregate, these include

all the objects seen on stage, including the musicians’ stools, the

musical instruments, the masks, and so on. However, for most pur-

poses, props can be referred to as those things that are handled by

actors or decorate the stage, thereby giving us the terms suedo

(‘‘placed props’’) and tedo

gu (‘‘hand props’’). The former are those

placed on the stage as set decorations. The latter are those carried by

the actors. About half the props used in no

appear

in kyo

gen

, where

they tend to be even more simpliﬁed and of the kind representing

daily use items, including the ubiquitous fan.

Props are also categorized according to whether they are kodo

(‘‘small props’’) or tsukuri mono (‘‘made-up props’’). The former—

primarily hand props—normally implies that the props are what they

purport to be, i.e., swords, halberds (at seven feet, the longest hand

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PROPERTIES: NO

• 313

prop), rosaries, fans, rakes, drums, mallets, rain hats, nets, musical

instruments, amulet bags, mirrors, scythes, umbrellas, batons, scrolls,

incense, leafy branches (a symbol of madness), thread winders, and

so on. Many are available in multiple varieties according to play and

role-type. Some hand props are considered tsukuri mono,suchas

poem cards, documents, scrolls, rosaries, walking sticks, rakes, musi-

cal instruments, torches, ﬁshing poles, ﬁshing nets, puriﬁcation

wands, bows and arrows, and whips. Unusual props include one that

produces ﬂames in Chikubushima, the tray with peach blossoms and

fruit in Sei O

bo, the ﬁshhook with which the dragon enters in Tama-

noi, and the long paper threads thrown out by the spider in Tsuchi-

gumo. Often, props are placed on stage by the ko

ken and removed

when no longer needed, with no attempt to disguise the theatricality

of the act. And, depending on how they are used, certain props can

be used within a play’s changing contexts to conjure up multiple

meanings that go beyond their immediate appearance. In Uto

,for

example, a straw hat given to the shite by the ko

ken becomes not

merely a hat but, when placed on the ﬂoor, a stupa to which prayers

can be offered.

Kodo

gu are stored away until needed. Tsukuri mono are con-

structed speciﬁcally for a performance several days in advance, and

are dismantled afterwards. These are symbolic, built of bamboo and,

often, wrapped in white cloth, and occasionally decorated with arti-

ﬁcial tree or ﬂowering branches. They resemble their originals the

way a skeleton resembles a person, although some closely resemble

their models. Among the set pieces made this way are ox-drawn car-

riages, prison cells, boats, torii gates, well curbs, prayer wheels, mir-

ror stands, fulling blocks, sake jars, seats, temple bells (the one in

-ji is the heaviest no

prop), shrines, and cemetery mounds. Some

may be partly made of branches, ﬂowers (living and artiﬁcial), paper,

straw, ﬁrewood, silk, and paper. Large props may require at least two

ken to bring them on. Some props are decorated with narrow strips

of striped red or navy cloth. Occasionally, a tsukuri mono is built as

a frame enclosed in damask so it may hide an actor in it prior to his

appearance; or, as in Sessho

Seki, the actor may go inside to change

his costume. These changes are made with the help of the ko

ken, but

in Do

-ji the actor changes his costume inside the bell without any

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314 • PUPPET CONSTRUCTION

assistance. Strict interpretation of the terminology says that only the

set pieces are true tsukuri mono.

In a class by themselves are the small wooden platforms (ichijo

dai), roughly three feet by six, that serve a variety of symbolic scenic

purposes—suggesting bridges, beds, palaces, mountains, and so

on—and that may be dressed with such things as small trees and

more elaborate tsukuri mono. Actors often stamp on these platforms

during dances. Similarl y uncla ssiﬁable a re ka zura oke casks. See

also NIJO

DAI; PROPERTIES: KYO

GEN.

PUPPET CONSTRUCTION. Although they displayed powerful and

lively expressions, the heads of ko jo

ruri puppets, the kind that pre-

ceded those of bunraku, were essentially one-dimensional and crude

and portrayed only the most stereotypical attitudes and characters.

With the appearance in the early 18th century of Chikamatsu Mon-

zaemon’s realistic sewa mono characters, a new kind of head had to

be created. This did not happen, however, until after Chikamatsu’s

death in 1725, when the puppets, formerly subservient to the musical

narrative, became at least as important an attraction and added realis-

tic technical and artistic improvements to their appearance and han-

dling.

From 1727 through the 1740s, there was a series of innovations:

for example, in 1727, there was a puppet whose mouth and eyes

could open and close; in 1729, a puppet’s eyes could move in their

sockets; in 1733, a puppet could move its ﬁngers; in 1734, the three-

man (sannin-zukai) system began; in 1736, a head had movable eye-

brows; in 1739, the sashigane rod for manipulating the puppet’s left

arm was introduced; in 1745, real mud and water were used and a

male hero appeared wearing only a loincloth on his tattooed body; in

1747, the ears moved on a character who was a fox in disguise, and

so on. Before long there was not much that living actors could do

that the puppets could not also do. The puppets thus forfeited the

special qualities that made them unique, which may be a major rea-

son bunraku lost out in its rivalry with kabuki, which had been bor-

rowing its plays since at least 1708.

Meanwhile, new character types appeared in almost every play and

new puppet heads had to be carved to represent them. When bun-

raku playwriting was replaced by revivals, the performers turned to

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PUPPETEERS • 315

polishing their skills and the existing heads were standardized. Only

after World War II, when plays like Hamlet (1956) were produced,

did it become necessary for new heads to be created.

Aside from those male puppets whose exposed bodies have full

torsos, the puppet’s torso typically consists of little more than an

oval-shaped ‘‘shoulder board’’ (kata-ita), covered with loofah (hech-

ima) to provide roundness, a hole in its center for the neck, and a

thin, bamboo circle forming a ‘‘waist hoop’’ (koshiwa). Narrow strips

of cloth hold this hollow contrivance together in front and back. The

balance of the costume ensemble depends on the shoulder line and

the position and thickness of the waistline. When fully constructed,

a puppet is anywhere from two and a half to ﬁve feet tall and weighs

from 10 to 50 pounds.

The arms and legs are attached by strings to the shoulder board.

As a rule, only male puppets have legs (there are six types available),

so the females’ must be simulated by the way the ashizukai manipu-

lates the folds of the kimono hem (fuki). (Rare examples of female

puppets with legs are Iwafuji in Kagamiyama Ko

kyo

no Nishiki-e,

who must step on Lady Onoe, and Otsuru in Yu

giri Awa no Naruto,

who also needs them for purposes of the action.) A sashigane is con-

nected to the left arm for manipulation by the hidarizukai.

Whether or not a puppet has hands with articulated ﬁngers that

move is dependent on the needs of the scene (see PUPPET HANDS).

In addition to puppets representing human beings, a wide variety of

animal puppets exist, generally handled by a single puppeteer. Con-

sidered props, they include horses (on which a puppet rider will sit),

foxes, toads, birds, dogs, monkeys, etc.

PUPPETEERS. Until recent years, bunraku puppeteers (ningyo

zukai)

played second ﬁddle to the more prestigious chanters (tayu

), since

gidayu

bushi performance was so widespread among amateurs.

Spectators often went mainly to listen to the chanter, paying scant

attention to the puppets. The implicit rivalry between the puppeteers

and chanters became controversial during the premiere performance

of Kanadehon Chu

shingura (1748) when the omozukai and the

chanter clashed over their relative artistic autonomy (see TAKEDA

IZUMO; YOSHIDA BUNZABURO

The puppeteers wear either a black ensemble of hood with gauze

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316 • PUPPETEERS

face ﬂap, three-quarter tunic with side slits, trousers, and tabi, or for-

mal kimono with their faces exposed. Even when all three puppeteers

wear the former costume, the omozukai allows his face to be seen.

Each puppeteer wears cloth gauntlets (udenuki) covering his fore-

arms. (See DEZUKAI.)

Most puppets are manipulated by a three-man team (sannin-

zukai). Anonymous minor characters (tsume ningyo

), like those in

crowd scenes, and children are generally manipulated by a single

puppeteer. The assignments of chief, left arm, and leg puppeteers are

not always strictly followed. Often, for example, an omozukai will

appear as a hidarizukai so as to help a student learning to perform

as an omozukai. Moreover, a single puppeteer may assume several

functions—including that of st age a ssis tant (kaishaku)—over the

course of a long scene as puppets enter and exit.

Puppeteers belong to the Yoshida, Kiritake, or Toyomatsu schools,

but these names no longer have any real meaning. One can tell which

school they belong to by the shape of their hoods.

Puppeteer Yoshida Bunzaburo

pioneered many of the great

advances in puppeteering from the 1720s through the 1760s. Because

of the technical advances made during his time—including the divi-

sion into tachiyaku and onnagata specialization—puppeteers gained

prestige as highly honored artists. See also PUPPET CONSTRUC-

TION.

The omozukai are responsible for attaching the puppets’ arms to

the shoulder boards and for seeing to the sewing and repairs that the

puppets’ costumes often require. The ashizukai attaches the legs and

takes care of whatever is related to them, including tabi and leggings.

The puppeteers declare that the way in which they assemble the pup-

pets, including the smallest details of costuming, is crucial to their

interpretation. The assembly process is called ningyo

tsukuri (‘‘pup-

pet creation’’) or mae goshirae (‘‘making ahead’’).

The heart of bunraku remains its narrative and musical aspects and

their ability to tell a story. Bunraku puppetr y therefore generally

eschews the kind of crowd-pleasing spectacle and keren of kabuki.

Those occasions when it indulges in eye-catching techniques include

the u se of hikinuki to change the omozukai’s costume before the

audience’s eyes or the ﬂying (chu

nori) of the omozukai on a wire as

he handles his puppet.

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PUPPET HEAD CARVING • 317

PUPPET HANDS. There are a number of standard and specialized

hands used by bunraku puppets. Some have an immobile thumb

while the other four ﬁngers are fused but able to move as a unit at

each joint; others have movable thumbs with the other ﬁngers fused

and movable only at one position; others have completely articulated

ﬁngers, thumbs, and wrists; and some can move only at the wrist.

When the puppet’s right hand must do certain delicate business, the

omozukai’s own right hand, wearing a white glove to make it look

less obvious, appears beneath the puppet’s to do the business, such

as sewing or handling a pipe. There are, though, specialized hands

for holding a fan or the plectrum of a musical instrument.

A selection of important hand types includes:

• momiji-te: moves at wrist and at three joints in ﬁngers, which

move in unison, aside from the thumb. Used by most female

puppets.

• kase-te: non-jointed ﬁngers, fused together, with movable wrists.

Very common for male and female puppets.

• tsukami-te: ‘‘grasp hands,’’ jointed ﬁngers that can grasp things.

The wrist does not move.

• tako-tsukami: ‘‘octopus grasp,’’ a type of tsukami-te that also has

a movable wrist.

• odori-te: ‘‘dancing hands,’’ ﬁxed ﬁngers and movable wrists,

used by dancing male characters.

• koto-de:‘‘koto hands,’’ with picks afﬁxed to the extended middle

and index ﬁngers for playing the koto.

• shamisen-de:‘‘shamisen hands,’’ one of which holds a plectrum

and the other of which is shaped to hold the shamisen neck.

• kakko no te: ‘‘small drum hands,’’ each of which holds a drum-

stick to beat a small drum afﬁxed to the puppet’s waist.

PUPPET HEAD CARVING. Bunraku puppet heads (kashira)are

constructed of blocks of good quality Japanese cypress (hinoki)or

paulownia (kiri), which soak for up to three months until their inner

oils have dissipated. They are then divided into four parts, avoiding

the central part disclosing the age of the wood, and dried for at least

ﬁve years. For the do

gushi headgrip held by the puppeteer,the

toughest type of hinoki is used.

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318 • PUPPET HEADS

Distortion must be avoided, so determining the face’s seichu

-sen

(‘‘dead-center line’’) is vital. Then the eyes, eyebrows, nose, and

mouth are sketched on the block. The carving proceeds with rough

precision based on the positioning of the features. At this stage, it is

more important to capture the general spirit of the head than its pre-

cise measurements.

The next step is to cut the head in half vertically, at a place just

before the ears. The wood inside is hollowed out and the movable

features (eyes, eyebrows, mouth) are afﬁxed for heads that have

them. Springs are made of a type of whale baleen (hige), unique in

its ﬂexibility and endurance.

The halves of the head are glued together and the ﬁnishing carving

touches are made. Japanese paper is pasted over the head, which is

then coated with a kind of whitewash (gofun) dissolved in glue. The

head is coated a dozen or more times before completion. Then a

blend of rouge substances is added in stages to the white base to pro-

vide color depending on the character; the whiter the face, the more

upright the character. Some, like t he akat tsur a (‘‘red face’’), may

even have an entirely red countenance. The ﬁnish must subtly convey

the character’s inner nature when lit from the front and above, so too

shiny a surface is not appropriate. The color is often revised for each

new production in which the head is used in order to best suggest a

speciﬁc character.

When the coating is completed, the eyes and eyebrows are painted

on in black ink. Male characters have a bluish hue (seitai) added to

suggest the shaved portions of the beard and crown. The ﬁnal touch

for female heads is the painting of red lips.

PUPPET HEADS. Bunraku now has about 300 heads (kashira)in

actual use. In the early days of the puppet theatre, heads were pre-

pared for each character appearing in a new play. However, revivals

gradually replaced new play production and techniques became stan-

dardized. This included the use of previously carved heads for roles

of the same general type. The chief categories are tachiyaku and

onnagata heads. The heads represent old and young, male and

female, and good and bad characters. They must immediately suggest

the nature of the character, so certain conventions have come into

use. Sometimes, the same character may be represented by several

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PUPPET HEADS • 319

heads during a performance to show differing aspects of the charac-

ter. Many female heads have a tiny nee dle (ku chib ari) protruding

from the lower lip. The size of the heads varies according to the pup-

pet but they are proportionally small in relation to the size of the

entire puppet.

The names of the heads and their categories ﬁrst appeared in print

in two books published around the turn of the 19th century. However,

most names derive from plays written during the golden age of pup-

pet theatre from the mid-1710s through the mid-1760s, being based

either on characters or types that achieved fame during those years.

Examples are the bunshichi and the genta. In addition, there are

heads named for age-based character groupings, such as the waka

otoko or baba

Today, in addition to about 30 special heads, there are about 40

types varied by their wigs and coloration so that they may be worn

by a number of different characters. Some are seen only in jidai

mono, some only in sewa mono, and some in both; some are used

only by good characters, some only by bad, and some by both. About

20 may be used by only a single character.

The facial movements possible have speciﬁc names: (a) nemuri:

opening and closing the eyes; (b) aochi: moving the eyebrows up and

down; (c) kuchiake: opening and closing the mouth; (d) yorime or

yokome: eyes looking to right and left. A few puppets even have

movable noses.

The head has a neck (nodogi) to which is attached a wooden head-

grip (do

gushi) ﬁtted with toggles (kozaru) and a looped string (hiki-

sen, popularly called choi). To operate the mouth, eyes, and

eyebrows, the omozukai manipulates toggles on the rear and sides of

the do

gushi. The hikisen is used to move the head itself. Normally,

the head hangs forward loosely but when the puppeteer pulls the hiki-

sen with his ﬁnger, the puppet’s chin rises; when he loosens his grip,

the head descends. Operating this movement is the ‘‘nodding string’’

(unazuki no ito), made of the thickest and strongest of shamisen

strings. See also PUPPET HEAD CARVING.

The selection of which heads from any category will be used for a

speciﬁc production or which puppets will be assigned to which pup-

peteers is the job of veteran puppeteers, the ‘‘head distributor’’

(kashirawari i-in) and the ‘‘small distributor’’ (kowari i-in), respec-

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320 • PUPPET HEADS: FEMALE

tively. The decision of which heads to use is complex since each has

speciﬁc characteristics that differ slightly from others of the same

type. If a bunshichi is chosen over a genta for a leading role, the

person in charge has to decide which of the seven or so bunshichi

heads available is the best, based on the character, scene, and chief

puppeteer’s interpretation. Sometimes the same character uses differ-

ent heads in different scenes according to what the character must

express in each scene. The distributor will not want too many similar

heads appearing during a single program so he will look for variety.

When the decision is made, the distributor writes the name of the

character and the chief puppeteer on a twisted piece of Japanese

paper, which he attaches to the head’s manipulation cord before

sending the head to the wig dresser (tokoyama). See also PUPPET

HEADS: FEMALE; PUPPET HEADS: MALE.

PUPPET HEADS: FEMALE. Female puppet heads (kashira)are

called onnagata, the same word used for kabuki actors of female

roles. There are fewer female types than males.

Female heads divided by age are (a) old women: baba

, waru baba

bakuya; (b) mature women: fuke oyama, shinzo

(a lower-grade cour-

tesan), yashio, gabu; (c) young women: keisei, ofuku, musume,

sasaya.

Heads used for only a single role include: myo

rin (for the nun of

that name in Futatsu Cho

cho

Kuruwa Nikki); oiwa (for the heroine

of To

kaido

Yotsuya Kaidan); futa omote (‘‘double face’’), a trick

mask with a pretty girl’s face on one side and a fox’s on the other;

hannya, a horriﬁc demon’s face, etc.

PUPPET HEADS: MALE. Male puppet heads are called tachiyaku,

the same word used for male roles in kabuki.

Male heads divided by age are (a) old men: kiichi, shu

to, o

juto

masamune, shiratayu

, sadanoshin, takeuji,

and torao

;

(b) mature

men: bunshichi, ko

mei, kenbishi, kintoki, danshichi, darasuke,

matahei, yokanbei,andsanmaime chari (for comical villains like

Bannai in Kanadehon Chu

shingura); (c) youths: genta, waka otoko,

oniwaka.

Male heads used for only a single role include: sanbaso

, oni

(‘‘devils’’), funewaka, zato

(‘‘blindmen’’ofwhichtherearethree

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