Japan Society Presents National Bunraku Theater This October

Japan Society will present National Bunraku Theater, with four performances only taking place Thursday, October 3 through Saturday, October 5 at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street).  

This long-awaited return of traditional bunraku puppet theater brought to New York City by Japan’s National Theatre marks the next presentation in Japan Society’s Fall 2024 Series “Ningyo! A Parade of Puppetry,” following Basil Twist’s Dogugaeshi which launches the series this September.  This presentation of National Bunraku Theater at Japan Society in New York is part of a five-city North American tour organized by Japan Society and produced under partnership with National Theatre/Japan Arts Council, with additional stops including Los Angeles, CA (September 28), Fairfield, CT (October 1), Washington D.C. (October 8 & 9) and Houston, TX (October 12).

Japan’s National Theatre makes its triumphant arrival with bunraku theater in New York City for the first time in 32 years.  Starring a full roster of 14 master puppeteers and musicians, this program features two major climaxes from bunraku repertoire: The Fire Watchtower scene from Date Musume Koi no Higanoko (Oshichi, the Greengrocer’s Daughter), depicting a woman’s desperate act to save her lover, and The Forest by the Tenjin Shrine scene from Sonezaki Shinju (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), one of the most influential works written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725), often referred to as Japan's Shakespeare. The program also includes an intimate puppetry demonstration, in which puppeteers describe and showcase the unique components of bunraku theater for American audiences, such as its globally influential three-person puppet manipulation technique.  Evening performances will be preceded by a lecture on bunraku, presented by Hunter College Professor Claudia Orenstein.  A separate workshop will also be held to provide a closer look at bunraku puppetry and give participants an opportunity to operate puppets themselves.  

Unique to this production, The Love Suicides at Sonezaki incorporates a fusion of traditional puppetry, stage props and music with anime.  Kazuo Oga, who designed the background art of world-renowned anime such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and In This Corner of the World has designed beautiful animated scenery which will be projected onto the stage, integrating two of Japan's signature artistic genres.

These performances coincide with the opening of Japan Society Gallery’s Bunraku Backstage exhibition, providing a rare glimpse behind the scenes of Japanese puppet theater. Showcasing actual working puppets, props, instruments, and costumes on loan from the National Bunraku Theatre, Osaka, alongside Basil Twist’s intricate stage mechanisms and painted screens for Dogugaeshi; and unexpected bunraku-inspired multimedia works by contemporary artists, this exhibition unveils the artistry and collaboration that goes into a staged bunraku performance, as well as the ongoing inspiration and influence of Japanese puppetry on contemporary artists.  A Gallery Opening Reception will take place after the performance on October 3, and the Gallery will be open for public viewing from October 4, 2024 through January 21, 2025.

This performance offers US audiences a rare opportunity to glimpse the rich culture not only of bunraku, designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, but of Osaka, Japan’s second-largest city and the birthplace of bunraku.  This timely event takes place only six months ahead of World Expo 2025, when global attention will be placed on Osaka, Japan as host city.

About Bunraku 

Though the term "bunraku" is often used to describe traditional Japanese puppet theater, especially for productions incorporating the three-person puppet manipulation technique, the word "Bunraku" is actually a proper noun traced back to the name of a company/theater established in Osaka by an impresario and dramatic narrator (tayu), Uemura Bunraku-ken, at the turn of the 19th century.

Bunraku performance is based on joruri, a stylized musical narrative chanting form that is thought to have begun in the 15th century.  In the 16th century, the practice of three-stringed banjo-like instruments known as shamisen accompanying the chanter became standardized, making great strides for joruri both musically and literarily. Ningyo (puppet) theater, meanwhile, has a much longer history, likely starting in Japan’s ancient Heian period (794 – 1185) or earlier.  Common understanding holds that the first use of joruri in ningyo theater was in the late 16th century. 

Although bunraku is famous for its three-person manipulation, this unique technique was invented about 70 years before Umemura Bunraku-ken started his puppet theater.  However, it took time to further develop and improve this demanding skill and training, and, by the late 18th century, the technique was formalized into the style bunraku puppeteers use today.  Three puppeteers work in tandem to manipulate a single puppet. The lead puppeteer, called omo-zukai (head operator), operates the puppet's head and the right arm; a second puppeteer, called hidari-zukai (left operator), operates the left arm; and a third puppeteer, called ashi-zukai (leg operator), operates the legs.  They must coordinate their movements to ensure that the puppet’s gestures and attitudes appear realistic in a highly-choreographed collaboration that provides a vast range of expression and complex movement unattainable by a single puppeteer.

Performances take place October 3 – 5 at Japan Society as follows:

Thursday, October 3 at 7:00pm (Followed by a Gallery Exhibition opening reception)
Friday, October 4 at 7:30pm (Followed by an artist Q&A)
Saturday, October 5 at 3:00pm and 7:30pm

Tickets: October 3 - $85/$55 Japan Society members (includes entry to Gallery opening event following the performance; October 4 & 5 - $72/$55 Japan Society members.

*Performed in Japanese with English surtitles

A pre-performance lecture on bunraku led by Hunter College Professor Claudia Orenstein begins one hour before each evening performance. 

This event coincides with the opening of Japan Society Gallery's fall exhibition, Bunraku Backstage.

The Fall 2024 Series Ningyo! A Parade of Puppetry launches with Basil Twist’s Dogugaeshi, a 20th anniversary revival of Twist’s Bessie award-winning fusion of mind-bending contemporary puppetry and nearly extinct traditional puppetry techniques from Japan’s Awa region (September 11 – 19).  FollowingNational Bunraku Theater, the series continues with the world premiere of Shinnai Meets Puppetry (November 7 – 9), a double bill of two enchanting Japanese fables uniting rustic and deeply expressive shinnai-bushi storytelling music with innovative contemporary rod, hand and shadow puppetry techniques.  Completing the Series (December 12 & 13), The Benshi Tradition and the Silver Screen: A Japanese Puppetry Spin-off links the legacy of bunraku to Japan’s silent film tradition of the benshi, with modern benshi star Ichiro Kataoka and shamisen musician Sumie Kaneko joining forces across two separate screenings of silent samurai classics.  

In Winter/Spring 2025, Japan Society presents the 20th Contemporary Dance Festival: Japan + East Asia (January 10 – 11), featuring ensembles from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea that represent the hottest contemporary dance coming out of East Asia today. Next, the French gothic horror Le Barbe Bleue gets a Harajuku makeover in Shuji Terayama’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (January 15 – 18), a mazelike retelling of the original tale and the Bartok adaptation by underground theater / filmmaker legend Shuji Terayama, further subverted into a wild burlesque showcase by the crossdressing, all-female company Project NYX, all directed by experimental theater veteran Kim Sujin. The season continues with the 19th Installment of the Annual Play Reading, presenting the play the far side of the moon (March 10), a haunting meditation on aging and loneliness in the modern era written by Izumi Kasagi and directed by NYC-based Skye Kowaleski.  Following the play reading, traditional Japanese instrument rockstars The Shakuhachi 5 have their North American debut concert in The Shakuhachi 5: Shakuhachi Vogue – A Visual Concert (May 16), featuring an impressive range of new and traditional works over four centuries to the backdrop of a mesmerizing video collage of ukiyo-e images, designed by visual artist Tei Blow. The season culminates with the music series Shun Ishiwaka: Jazz Transcending (June 5 & 7), in a set of two contrasting programs, one on each night, that place the rapidly transcendent star percussionist and musician Shun Ishiwaka front and center for American audiences.

All events take place at Japan Society, located at 333 East 47th Street in Manhattan.  Tickets on sale now.  For tickets and further detail, please visit www.japansociety.org or call 212-715-1258. (Non-member tickets include a $3 processing fee.)

About Japan Society

Japan Society is the premier organization connecting Japanese arts, culture, business, and society with audiences in NYC and around the world.  In over 100 years of work, we’ve inspired generations by establishing ourselves as pioneers in supporting international exchanges in arts and culture, business and policy, as well as education between Japan and the U.S.  From our New York headquarters, a landmark building designed by architect Junzo Yoshimura that opened to the public in 1971, we look forward to the years ahead.

Since the inception of the Japan Society Performing Arts Program in 1953, Japan Society has introduced nearly a 1,000 of Japan’s finest performing arts to an extensive American audience.  Programs range from the traditional arts of noh, kyogen, bunraku and kabuki to cutting-Edge Theater, dance and music.  The Program also commissions new works to non-Japanese artists, produces national tours, organizes residency programs for American and Japanese artists and develops and distributes educational programs.  "At once diverse and daring, the program stands toe to toe with some of the most comprehensive cultural exchange endeavors today.” – Back Stage

Tickets & Information: 

Tickets for performances and related events at Japan Society can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 212-715-1258 or in person at Japan Society (M-F 9:00am – 5:00pm).  Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street, between First and Second Avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 at 42nd Street-Grand Central Station or the E at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street).  For more information, call 212-832-1155 or visit https://www.japansociety.org/