As the modern era began to dawn in Japan, and a new merchant class emerged as a potent cultural force, the "realism" of puppetry displaced Noh living theater as the theatrical art of choice. Prosperous, at peace after years of civil... [more]

As the modern era began to dawn in Japan, and a new merchant class emerged as a potent cultural force, the "realism" of puppetry displaced Noh living theater as the theatrical art of choice. Prosperous, at peace after years of civil war, Japan enjoyed a new comfort zone, but one bought at a steep price: the Tokugawa dynasty forbade any contact with China or Europe. For almost three centuries, Japan's aesthetics intensified and took unique shape within this cultural hothouse. Bunraku was one of a series of new, home-grown arts that addressed the popular audience, who wanted a theater that acted out their world, and not the disconnected theatrics of noble-sponsored Noh. Puppetry -- originally a sideshow attraction for feudal-era traveling minstrels -- came into its own in Bunraku theater. Several handlers wrangled with each of the elaborate, life-size puppets that vividly acted out the problems of the middle and lower classes, sometimes taking actual events as the basis for their story lines. These "domestic dramas" about suicide, infidelity, poverty, and loss of honor dominated Bunraku offerings; plays were also written about historical events and the nobility, but these were less popular, and have not survived to the present. Poetic, visceral, yet highly relevant to the people's lives, Bunraku became the first popular art in aristocratic Japan to give the plain people a voice. [show less]