Leiter S.L. Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre

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INTRODUCTION • 11

priests performed a humorous depiction of a priestly sermon as a rhyth-

mic dance.

It was during these years that sarugaku no no

was making major

headway because of the contributions of Kan’ami Kiyotsugu, who

received ofﬁcial patronage from the shogun after 1374. As no

was tak-

ing form as a serious drama using written, poetic texts, and based on

chanting, music, and dance, sarugaku no kyo

gen, while containing

dance-like movement and musical segments, was developing as a

mainly comic form based on ad-libbed, prosaic wordplay. Moreover,

’s solemnity was more in keeping with the soberness of the samurai

class—who were imbued with Buddhist teachings of life’s imperma-

nence—than was kyo

gen, whose chief purpose was to elicit laughter.

However, during the Muromachi period, when no

became the favored

form, kyo

gen companies were annexed to or absorbed within its

troupes.

In his Shu

sho (Learning the Way), Zeami describes programmatic

arrangements in which no

and kyo

gen plays alternated, and these

became the basis for later programs. He also wrote about the kyo

gen

actors’ artistic responsibilities, and cautioned that when they performed

the aikyo

gen in no

they were not to cause laughter, suggesting that at

that time kyo

gen actors were still attempting to make their perform-

ances in no

plays amusing, a practice subsequently abandoned and

reserved for kyo

gen plays.

A valuable picture of 15th-century kyo

gen is found in a 1424 diary

entry by Prince Gosu Ko

in Sadafusa, who saw a kyo

gen called Kuge

Bito Hiro no Koto (The Court Noble’s Fatigue). One of the spectators

was the court noble Hatakeyama Sho

hitsu, in charge of the priests at

u no Miya Shrine in Fushimi; improvising, the actors delighted him

by performing as if he were a poor man, and, despite the social conven-

tion that samurai must not laugh, he could not refrain from doing so.

The diarist, however, chastised the troupe’s leader for inappropriate

behavior. Other historic al an ecdo tes a lso p oint to re buke s for actors

whose improvisational antics went too far in ridiculing important

people.

In 1464, the largest kanjin performance

the Muromachi period was

given. The records note that 20 kyo

gen plays were performed over three

days, including Saru Biki, O

ka Sho

ka, and Oni no Mame. Although

titles were not yet ﬁxed, the fact that so many plays were performed

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12 • INTRODUCTION

over three days suggests that the practice of maintaining a stock of plays

was already developed despite the reliance on improvisation. A 1536

diary entry describing a performance at Ishiyama’s Honganji Temple

provides evidence that plots and titles were being regularized by that

date, and that certain plays performed today were already in the reper-

tory.

The oldest extant plays go back the Tensho

Kyo

gen Bon (Tensho

Period Kyo

gen Collection) of 1578, which lists 150 plays. Alt hough

there are questions regarding the accuracy of its chronology and text, it

gives a good idea of late Muromachi period kyo

gen. The text contains

the plot outlines of 103 of the plays listed, with only the songs and nar-

rative speeches given in any detail, not unlike the scenarios we have

for commedia dell’arte. Kyo

gen, much less than no

, remained ﬂuid and

ﬂexible for many years. Of the 103 summaries (one is repeated), about

20 have not been seen since the Edo period. In one, Konoe-dono no

shijo

, a farmer registers a complaint against an evil ofﬁcial asking

Lord Konoe to expel him; its being too close to real conditions led to

its being dropped, but it shows how kyo

gen reﬂected the contemporary

world. And many later plays were stopped because their originals

included swords being drawn, people being chased into corners, and

considerable violence.

The circumstances surrounding kyo

gen actors’ lives in the Muro-

machi period are vague but we are able to trace the emergence of the

three principal schools (ryu

) of kyo

gen: Sagi, Izumi, and O

kura. Later,

the schools shared many of the same plays (although often in differing

versions), which was probably because of the free interchange among

schools in which actors then engaged.

As noted above, no

and kyo

gen actors suffered during the economic

and political turmoil of the 16th century, but breathed easily again

when general Oda Nobunaga came into power and offered his support.

kura Yaemon XI received the character for tora (‘‘tiger’’) from Nobu-

naga and became O

kura Yaemon Toramasa; in 1592 his son, O

kura Yae-

mon Torakiyo (1566–1646), and Cho

mei Tokuemon held a two-day

subscription performance, presenting 12 or 13 kyo

gen in one day, and

gradually establishing the O

kura ryu

. Nobunaga’s no

-loving successor,

Hideyoshi, also made life easier for the actors, who now were able to

concentrate on improving their art. The Momoyama period was a major

turning

point

for no

and kyo

gen.

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INTRODUCTION • 13

During the Tokugawa shogunate, kyo

gen joined no

as a ceremonial

ar t of the regime. In 1614, the Kanze selected Sagi Niemon So

gen

(1560–1650) as its afﬁliated kyo

gen player, leading to a signiﬁcant

decrease in the number of plays shared by the Sagi and O

kura. A rivalry

sprang up between the traditional O

kura and the newly risen Sagi and

school consciousness appeared, the schools competing to create their

own individual identity.

The 13th head (so

ke)oftheO

kuralinewasO

kura Toraakira

(1597–1662), one of the great ﬁgures in Japanese theatre history. In

1642, he produced the O

kura Toraakira Bon (O

kura Toraaki’s Book),

which included 237 plays, and, in 1660, he wrote the Waranbegusa, the

ﬁrst theoretical discussion of kyo

gen, which he sought to make worthy

of its ofﬁcial status as a shikigaku.

Other schools existed as well, including the Nanto Negi ryu

of Nara’s

Kasuga Shrine, which gradually was absorbed by the O

kura. Moreover,

among the performers of the minor offshoots of the Nanto Negi were a

number who were of great assistance to the burgeoning new kabuki of

the early Edo period. None of these minor schools seems to have left a

book of their plays. Kabuki of the early 17th century was strongly

inﬂuenced by the incursion of kyo

gen actors into its ranks, one of whom

was said to have been married to kabuki’s founder, Izumo no Okuni.

kura Toraakira and Sagi Niemon So

gen appeared in 1635 at Edo Cas-

tle before the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, following a program of

10 no

plays including a kabuki-like dance performance, which

delighted the ruler; however, Toraakira did not approve of the Sagi style

of acting, which—despite himself having to perform kabuki dances

when requested—he considered more kabuki than kyo

gen. But in the

mid-1650s, after kabuki had changed to yaro

kabuki to

ve itself (see

‘‘Brief History of Kabuki’’ later in the chapter), its connections with

kyo

gen diminished as it sought to lessen its dependence on dance and

increase the quality of its acting and dramaturgy.

During the Edo period, a number of impor tant no

plays, such as

Ikkaku Sennin and Do

-ji were transformed into kabuki plays, but kyo

gen lagged far behind, its depiction of everyday life in the middle ages

not being of great interest to theatregoers of the ﬂoating world. Apart

from various works in the Sanbaso

categor y, only one kyo

gen play,

Utsubo Zaru, inspired a kabuki play, Hana Butai Kasumi no Saru Hiki

(1838). In 1840, Kanjincho

, the ﬁrst kabuki matsubame mono, a play

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14 • INTRODUCTION

that borrows the physical appearance and style of no

, in this case the

play Ataka, was staged, but no such productions were based on kyo

gen until the Meiji period.

By the mid-Edo period, kyo

gen had achieved its ultimate form, sug-

gesting that it was moving into a period of standardization. The actors

had the security necessary to hand on their art from one generation to

the other. Thus, the collapse of the shogunate in 1868 was an explosive

development.

During the early Meiji period, kyo

gen, like no

, experienced a precipi-

tous decline. However, also like no

, the ofﬁcial attitude experienced a

turnaround in the face of the need to present a strong cultural tradition

to the world, and, by 1877, a rapid recovery was underway. However,

the old feudal ethic of the samurai class—‘‘otoko wa sannen ni kataho

’’

(‘‘a man must not laugh more than once ever y three years’’)—

continued, so laughter was not given strong cultural acceptance. Well-

to-do and educated people studied no

chanting, but ignored kyo

gen,

even going so far as to chat loudly, to the actors’ disgust, during the

kyo

gen interludes on a no

program. Meiji audiences treated kyo

gen with

disrespect.

Meiji inaugurated the beginning of a close relationship between

kabuki and kyo

gen, when matsubame mono based on kyo

gen began to

be produced regularly; the ﬁrst was 1882’s Tsuri Gitsune, which, how-

ever, did not remain in the repertory. The intimate artistic relationship

between kyo

gen and kabuki is said to have been deemed inappropriate

enough to have led to the demise of the Sagi ryu

. The world of no

and

kyo

gen—proud of their Edo-period samurai status—presumably con-

tinued to look down disdainfully on kabuki actors until the end of World

War II. After the war, however, kyo

gen actors themselves sometimes

directed kabuki adaptations

their plays, revealing a complete reversal

of previous attitudes.

In 1955, a number of famous kyo

gen actors gained attention when

they began to write and perform new kyo

gen plays and works inﬂu-

enced by kyo

gen style. Moreover, the superb acting ability of various

actors was widely recognized and there was even a ‘‘kyo

gen boom,’’

which helped make kyo

gen as appreciated as no

. Kyo

gen, which had

been a second-class citizen since the time of Zeami, ﬁnally was appreci-

ated as a great classical theatre. It even gained international acclaim. In

1963, Nomura Manzo

’s family performed abroad and since then kyo

gen

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INTRODUCTION • 15

alone and in concert with no

has been performed throughout the world.

As with no

, new plays are continually written and performed, women

have begun to make inroads as kyo

gen actors, and even English-lan-

guage kyo

gen performances can be seen today. This pure example of

Japanese theatrical charm and humor has been acknowledged every-

where for its great artistry. Laughter has become permissible.

BRIEF HISTORY OF BUNRAKU

According to Donald Keene (1965, 31), ‘‘Bunraku . . . is a form of

storytelling, recited to a musical accompaniment and embodied by pup-

pets on a stage’’ (1965, 31). The early history of bunraku is the story

of how the three disparate ar ts of puppetr y, chanting, and shamisen

playing came to be fused as a single entity in what was generally known

as ningyo

ruri or ningyo

shibai before the name bunraku became

common.

The earliest Japanese puppet shows (kugutsu or karaishi) apparently

owed their origins to Asian mainland (probably Korean) sources, and

the wandering performers came to be associated with shrines and tem-

ples, where their performances had ritual signiﬁcance. Among the vari-

ous kinds of puppets that appeared in later years were those called ebisu

kaki, associated at ﬁrst with the Ebisu Shrine in Nishinomiya, in west-

ern Japan. These puppets, who performed versions of no

and kyo

gen in

boxes slung from the necks of the puppeteers, were combined at the

turn of the 17th century with the popular narrative-musical art of jo

ruri,

which had recently abandoned the three-stringed biwa for the shami-

sen, introduced earlier in the century from China.

The fusion of puppets, jo

ruri, and shamisen proved immensely suc-

cessful and saw many signiﬁcant developments during the century,

especially with the competition of numerous types of chanting. These

rival styles later came to be called ko jo

ruri (‘‘old jo

ruri’’) and were

represented by such chanters as Inoue Harima no jo

(1632–85), Sa-

tsuma Jo

un (1595–1672), and Uji Kaga no jo

(1635 –1708). The

chanters (tayu

ˆ),

accompanied

by still rather simple shamisen accompa-

niment, were the focus of attention as they recited all the roles and the

descriptive narration; puppetry—both hand puppets and string puppets

(ayatsuri shibai) were used although it is not always clear who used

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16 • INTRODUCTION

which—was still not a highly developed art. Ko jo

ruri was surpassed by

the new style introduced by chanter Takemoto Gidayu

(1652–1714),

whose shin jo

ruri (‘‘new jo

ruri’’) was introduced in1686 in conjunction

with the production of a play by another revolutionary artist, the play-

wright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724), who had actually

begun his career writing ko jo

ruri plays for Uji Kaga no jo

The classical age of ningyo

ruri began with the opening by Gidayu

and his partners in 1684 of the Takemoto-za in the western part of

Osaka’s Do

tonbori entertainment district. Gidayuˆ, Chikamatsu, shami-

sen player Takezawa Gen’emon,andpuppeteers li ke Tatsumatsu

Hachirobei (?–1734) made an unbeatable combination, especially after

Chikamatsu introduced the sewa mono genre in 1703, which brought

everyday life to the puppet stage. (Earlier, sewa mono had appeared in

kabuki.) Just as signiﬁcant was the fact that this particular example was

about a lovers’ suicide, which led to the creation of the shinju

mono

subgenre. Numerous innovations in production—such as degatari and

dezukai—were introduced when Takeda Izumo I (? –174 7) be came

manager in 1705.

The Takemoto-za’s sole long-lasting rival was the Toyotake-za,

opened in the eastern part of Do

tonbori in 1703 by Toyotake Waka-

tayu

(1681–1784), whose company playwright was Ki no Kaion

(1663–1742). Each company maintained a distinct style (fu

) until the

system broke down in 1748 following a famous dispute between puppe-

teer Yoshida Bunzaburo

and chanter Takemoto Konotayu

. His tradi-

tional authority challenged, Konotayu

left for the rival theatre, after

which the theatres’ stylistic differences became muddied.

ollowing

half a century in which the Osaka puppet theatre’s popu-

larity managed to outpace even that of kabuki, serious problems arose

in the 1750s and 1760s, partly because of the damaging effect produced

by the deaths within a short period of some of the greatest artists, who

were not succeeded by their equals or superiors. The Toyotake-za and

Takemoto-za rivalry ended in the mid-1760s when these theatres went

out of business, although both made brief reappearances before ﬁnally

succumbing.

The golden age of bunraku was from the 1720s through the 1760s,

when major advances in the technical features of the puppets were

accomplished (especially movable facial features and ar ticulated

hands), the one-man puppet system was changed to the three-man sys-

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INTRODUCTION • 17

tem (sannin-zukai), and many masterpieces were written b y play-

wrights like Takeda Izumo II, Bunko

(?–1741?), Hasegawa Senshi

(1689–1733), Miyoshi Sho

raku, Namiki So

suke (1695–1751), and

Yoshida Kanshi I (another name for puppeteer Yoshida Bunzaburo

)at

the Takemoto-za, and Nishizawa Ippu

, (1665–1731), Tamenaga Taro

bei, Asada Itcho

, and Wakatake Fuemi at the Toyotake-za. Before the

century was out, there would be major contributions by Chikamatsu

Hanji (1725 –83), Chikamatsu Yanagi, Suga Sensuke, an d other s.

After 1799, very few new plays of lasting value were written and all

productions were revivals. Most of the post-Chikamatsu plays were

lengthy works created by playwriting teams (gassaku).

Although Osaka was the hear tland of bunraku, the puppets also

ﬂourished in Edo from the late 18th century into the 19th centuries. For

example, puppeteer Tatsumatsu Hachirobei moved to Edo in 1719 and

opened the Tatsumatsu-za there. But Edo puppet theatre went back

much further, the earliest record being for 1617, when Tokunaga

Tanehisa Kiko

(The Story of Tokunaga Tanehisa) was produced in the

Nakabashi entertainment district, seven years before Saruwaka Kanza-

buro

(Nakamura Kanzaburo

; 1597?–1658) opened the Nakamura-

za, Edo’s ﬁrst permanent kabuki theatre. Early puppet theatre artists in

Edo included Sugiyama Tango no jo

, Satsuma Jo

un, and Isejima Kunai,

all of whom came from Osaka. Of great importance was the ko jo

ruri

genre called kinpira jo

ruri, popular because of its violent performance

style.

A number of still-famous plays were later created for the Edo puppet

theatre, but the total number is small—around 50—compared to Osaka,

and the general quality was not as high. Edo plays tended to emphasize

spectacle and theatricality over human emotions, and were easily adapt-

able by Edo kabuki. The best among them—written from the 1770s to

1807—were by such writers as Fukuuchi Kigai (Hiraga Gennai; 1728–

79), Ki no Jo

taro

(1747–99), Utei Enba (1741–1822), Matsu Kanshi

(?–1798), and Yo

tai.

he principal Edo puppet theatres, which

ﬂourished from the late 18th century to the early 19th, were the Geki-

za, Hizen-za, Yuˆki-za, and To

sa-za, all situated very near their kabuki

counterparts.

In Osaka, the descendants of the Toyotake-za and Takemoto-za eked

out an existence at small theatres in Do

tonbori and elsewhere through

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18 • INTRODUCTION

1817 under the names Wakatayu

Shibai, Takeda no Shibai, Kita Horie-

za (in the Horie district), Shinchi Shibai (in the Sonezaki district),

Gor yo

-sha, Inari-sha, Zama Jin-ja, and Tenman Tenjin-ja. The latter

four were in shrine and temple compounds and are known as miyaji

shibai. There were also irregular performances at variety theatres

(yose).

The 19th-century emphasis on revivals brought many great perform-

ers to the spotlight although attendance remained spotty. Early in this

uncertain time, a producer named Uemura Bunrakuken or Bunrakken

was instrumental in reviving some of the puppet theatre’s previous pop-

ularity, and three generations of his descendants carried the torch at dif-

ferent venues and through various hardships—including the draconian

Tenpo

reforms instituted by Mizuno Tadakuni in 1842—for the rest of

the century. Among things that disturbed the ofﬁcials was the ﬂam-

boyance of the puppeteers, who vied for attention by wearing striking

costumes and making up their faces like kabuki actors to attract female

spectators. By 1872, with the opening of the Bunraku–za, the puppet

theatre came to be called bunraku. It was soon rivaled by the Hikoro-

ku-za, a new company that lasted until 1893.

A golden age of performers appeared in the late 19th century, among

them chanters Takemoto Nagatodayu

III (1800–64) and IV (1814–

90), Takemoto Harutayu

V (1808– 77), Toyotake Ko

tsubodayuˆ I

(1828–78) and II (later Toyotake Yamashiro no Sho

; 1878–1967),

Takemoto O

sumidayu

III (1854–1913), and Takemoto Settsu no

daijo (1836–1917) . The great shamisen players included Toyozawa

Hirosuke VI (later Naniwa Gen’ami; 1842–1924), Toyozawa Danpei

II (1828– 98), Tsuruzawa Tomojiro

VI (1874–1951), and Ts uruz awa

Seiroku III (1868–1932), while the top puppeteers included Yoshida

Tamazo

I (1828–1905); Kiritake Monju

I (1845–1910), Yoshida

Taizo

I (1864–1916), Yoshida Eiza I (1872–1945), and Yoshida Bung-

oro

III (1869–1962).

The popularity of the puppet theatre was enormous among amateur

chanters and shamisen players in the late Meiji period, and Osaka was

renowned for the u biquit ousn ess o f its amateurs , who gave freq uent

public performances. The Osaka of the late 19th century, a much

smaller city than now, boasted at least 1,000 chanters, and both licensed

and unlicensed teachers totaled nearly 200. It was said one could not go

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INTRODUCTION • 19

anywhere in the city without constantly hearing the playing of a sham-

isen.

With the help of the above-named artists, bunraku survived the

Depression and World War II, as well as the destruction of its playhouse

by ﬁre in 1926 and bombs in 1945. The postwar era was not easy but a

number of milestones were passed that allowed bunraku to maintain

its integrity. One was the bequeathing in 1947 on the chanter Toyotake

tsubodayu

of the honorary name Toyotake Yamashiro no Sho

, the

highest rank given to a chanter since the early 18th century. A major

crisis, though, occurred when, in 1948, a split developed in the perform-

ers’ ranks, leading to two factions, the Chinami-kai and the Mitsuwa-

kai, over labor-related issues. Although they gradually began perform-

ing together again on special occasions in the late 1950s, the groups

were not formally reunited until 1963.

By the early 1950s, the economy began to improve but the public did

not seem much inclined toward classic art like bunraku and the number

of annual performances steadily decreased. Members gradually left and

were not replaced, so the number of artists shrank. Worried about this,

in 1953, the Bunkazai Hogo Iin-kai (Society for the Preser vation of

Cultural Assets, now the Bunka-Cho

[Ministr y of Culture]) appro-

priated a large amount of money to ensure the training of Osaka-region

performers. In 1954, bunraku was exempted from the admission tax.

Another very positive development was the 1955 governmental recog-

nition of the two factions as Important Intangible Cultural Properties.

In 1965, bunraku itself received a similar honor. The periodic recogni-

tion of severa l artis ts as Living Nation al Tr easu res f urther served to

increase interest.

The event that reun ited the Chi na mi-k ai an d Mit suwa-kai was t he

establishment in 1963 of the q uasi-governmental Bunraku Kyo

kai

(Bunraku Association). As a foundation, it was able to receive ﬁnancial

aid from government sources. Meanwhile, in 1962, bunraku toured to

Seattle, Vancouver, and Los Angeles, the ﬁrst of many subsequent for-

eign tours. (The Awaji puppeteers had toured to the Soviet Union in

1958.)

Perhaps the greatest occurrence in recent years was the opening in

1984 of the Kokuritsu Bunraku Gekijo

(National Bunraku Theatre).

Tokyo’s Kokuritsu Gekijo

(National Theatre) had opened in 1966. The

smaller of the latter’s two theatres (Sho

Gekijo

) was intended for visit-

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20 • INTRODUCTION

ing performances of bunraku, among other events. From 1974, a train-

ing program was begun there for future performers, but later moved to

the new Kokuritsu Bunraku Gekijo

. The traditional art of bunraku was

now protected by the national government.

Today, the majority of new artists receive specialized training in an

intensive two-year program at the Kokuritsu before joining the Bunraku

Kyo

kai, of whose membership they total close to 40 percent of all mem-

bers. Despite their excellent training, to achieve true mastery they must

attach themselves to a master and accumulate artistry through experi-

ence. Conser vatives remain dubious about whether this training sys-

tem—provided for young men in their late teens or early twenties—can

ever produce the kind of artistry provided by one’s learning from child-

hood on according to the old (and often severe) methods.

Apart from a tiny number of 19th-century plays, bunraku remains

dependent on an 18th-century classical repertory. The prewar 20th cen-

tury saw several new topical plays, including such jingoistic works as

Sanyu

shi Homare no Nikudan (1932) and Kokui wa Furu

(1942).

Tsuruzawa Do

hachi II (1915 – 81) create d several still-performed

dance plays based on classical materials, such as Kokaji (from the

)andTsuri Onna (from the kyo

gen). After the war, several mod-

ern playwrights wrote new bunraku plays, usually based on contem-

porary novels, but none has remained popular. There have also been

bunraku stagings of Western classics, including Hamlet (1956).

Another approach that has its advocates is the revival of plays

whose music is not extant, especially those of Chikamatsu and Ki

no Kaion, f or which new mat erial mus t be created . The impa ct of

TV, ﬁlms, and other modern forms of entertainment has cer tainly

hur t bunraku’s popularity but it never theless continues to sur vive, a

large part of its suppor t coming from the numerous amateurs who

practice and perform (including competitively) chanting and shamisen

playing.

Today, bunraku perf orms at the O saka Kokuri tsu B unraku Geki jo

four or ﬁve times a year for runs of 15 to 20 days, offers four 15-day

runs a year in the small theatre attached to Tokyo’s Kokuritsu Gekijo

gives yearly performances in Yokohama and Kyoto, and tours all over

Japan, not to mention giving frequent television performances and

going on international tours. Audiences are increas ing, especi ally in

Tokyo where they are younger than those in Osaka, and bunraku seems

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