P7+Theater

Theater: Kabuki, Bunraku, and Noh

By Harry A. and Aiden L.

Introduction

The Kabuki, Bunraku, and the Noh theaters are all very important and fascinating theaters in Japanese culture that are full of excitement, suspense, and thrill. The Kabuki Theater for example is full of elaborate makeup, and dancing, that is very intriguing. The Bunraku Theater is a dramatic puppet play for adults and is similar to the Kabuki Theater in many ways. The Noh Theater is a combination of exciting dances, drama, and poetry. All three theaters are remarkable and can learn a lot of interesting facts about all the theaters together. Kabuki The famous Kabuki Theater is full of elaborate makeup, singing, and dancing that pulls you into the performance and is full of excitement and entertaining. The Kabuki theatre became popular during the 17th- 19th century but originated in the 17th. The Kabuki theatre has elaborate stage designs and also has very detailed designed props. A samurai or warrior would never be seen at the Kabuki theatre because of the class of merchants and artisans to samurai’s. At the Kabuki theatre, since the Shogun had banned women from acting in the Kabuki theatre, all men had to dress as women and act the part of a women. The history of Kabuki began in 1603 when Okuni, a Japanese dancer called herself a priestess and began performing a new style of dance drama in Kyoto. The famous play was also performed there called the Forty Seven Ronin, which was a very famous case involving the samurai code of honor, bushido.

Bunraku

Bunraku Theater is a dramatic puppet play for adults established in Osaka in 1684 where a narrator sings all the parts to convey the emotions of the puppet characters. The narrator is accompanied by a Shamisen (stringed instrument) player. The Bunraku is similar to Kabuki Theater, but it uses three to four foot tall dolls that are manipulated by puppeteers. Music and chanting was also a popular convention encouraged on the small stage. The wooden puppets have beautiful costumes and are very intricate with many moving parts and many facial expressions. There are three puppeteers for each puppet, one is the master puppeteer and two are black hooded robed assistants who are visible to the audience. It takes ten years to become an apprentice puppeteer who can move the legs of a puppet, another ten years to move the hands of the puppet and a lifelong training to become a master puppeteer who controls the facial expressions of the puppet. Similar to Kabuki the plays often ended in suicide and the play the ‘Forty-Seven Ronin’ is a popular play performed in Kabuki and Bunraku. Bunraku was preceded by a long history of puppeteers in Japan. As early as the eight century, Korean puppeteers toured the Japanese country side. Later, puppets were used in Shinto Shrines to dramatize stories of the gods. There were serious story tellers in the 15th century which used a Biwa, an instrument similar to a lute, and in the 16th century, they started to use shamisan which had a really sad sound. In the late 16th century, the outdoor puppet theaters become a fine theatrical form and were very popular in Edo between 1603 -1867. This simple name not only describes a puppet performance, but also alludes to its predecessors. It was originally named Bunrakuza after the puppeteering ensemble of Uemura Bunrakuken. When Bunraku and Kabuki art forms were joined is not exactly clear, but the beginning of what is now called Bunraku was 1684, when Takemoto Gidayu set up his own theater in Osaka. The National Bunraku Theater is located today in Osaka and still performs at least five times every year.

Noh

The Noh Theater is combined with exciting dances, drama, and poetry. Noh was only performed to the high level class. The show combines dance, drama, music, and poetry, men performers did not wear masks. Noh performers are simply storytellers who use their visual appearances and their movements to suggest the essence of their tale rather than to enact it. Little happens in a Noh drama, and the total effect is less that of a present action than of a simile or metaphor made visual. All of the actor’s masks have names. Usually only Shite, the main player, takes the mask. However in some cases the Tsure may also take mask particularly for female roles. The Noh masks are used to portray a female or nonhuman character (divine, demon, animal). The play takes place on a stage made of Hinoki wood (cypress), and a revolving Stage is used to make quick scene change.

Noh History

Classic Japanese theatrical form the first Noh plays emerged from the ritualistic dance of the Shinto religion. One of the world's oldest extant theatrical forms, Noh theatre has a heroic theme, a chorus, and highly stylized action, costuming, and scenery. Its all-male performers are storytellers who use their visual appearances and movements to suggest their tale rather than enact it. Noh (from Japanese no, meaning "talent" or "skill") developed from ancient forms of dance-drama and became a distinctive form in the 14th century. The five types of Noh plays are the kami ("god") play, which involves a sacred story of a Shinto shrine; the shura mono ("fighting play"), which centers on warriors; the katsura mono ("wig play"), which has a female protagonist; the gendai mono ("present-day play") or kyojo mono ("madwoman play"), which is varied in content; and the kiri or kichiku ("final" or "demon") play, which features devils and strange beasts. Kan'ami (1333 – 84) and his son Zeami (1363 – 1443) wrote many of the most beautiful Noh texts; more than 200 remain in the modern Noh repertoire.

Samurai Relations

Even when plays made money, proper management was necessary to keep the theater financially stable, and the Takeda family had made its fortune as producers. Takeda's other contributions to Bunraku are the effects to make the puppets more life like and to add spectacle to the theater. Both of these came from his experience in the Karakuri puppet theater. Those effects that worked in the Karakuri Theater he quickly introduced to Bunraku, including technical developments for the puppets, which are discussed below, and spectacular sets. The balance between warrior and artist was important to the samurai class as they were trained in painting, calligraphy, poetry, flower-arranging, the tea ceremony, and all enjoyed a form of theatre known as Noh. Noh plays were popular because the themes reflected samurai history. The audience in the 17th century Kabuki Theater consisted of the merchant class, or chounin, in Japanese society. As the chounin grew wealthier they required the characters in Kabuki theatre to express this newfound wealth in the flamboyancy of costumes.

Conclusion

All three theaters interest you when you first start to read about them and there is always more information that you can learn from them each time you read about them. Music, drama, dance, instruments, puppets and poetry all play important roles in the various types of Japanese theater. They all have an intriguing rich history and the theaters are still a part of Japanese society and culture today.

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Citations

Odijk, Pamela. The Japanese. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Silver Burdett Press, 1989

The British Museum. “Kabuki Theater of Japan” Kabuki Theater of Japan. London: The British Museum. June 30, 2005. Web. 23 Feb 2010. http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/japan/kabuki_theatre_of_japan/kabuki_theatre_of_japan.aspx

Mishima, Shizuko. "Japanese Kabuki." About.com. Date not Available. The New York Times Company, Web. 23 Feb 2010. [].