Bunraku: Storytelling, Music & Puppetry 【EN/ES/FR/HU/ID/PT/RU/簡中/繁中/JP】

Ningyo Joruri is a combination of ningyo (puppets) and Joruri (narrative music) which combines voice and shamisen. It is now known as “Bunraku” since that is now the main troupe that represents this art form. It is a comprehensive performance art created in the Edo period (1603 – 1868) by combining three art forms that each have long, but separate histories: narrative singing performed by the tayu, instrumental musicians playing the three-stringed shamisen and puppeteers. Usually, a solo tayu plays all the roles and expresses the speech, emotions and movements of all different kinds of characters using a wide range of tones and voices and describes the scene with a combination of speech and song. His performance is punctuated by the music of the shamisen player who plays a futozao (“thick-necked”) shamisen which is very large and can produce a rich variety of sounds, from loud and powerful to quiet and delicate. Like a conductor, the shamisen player guides the speed and pacing of the performance. The p