Bunraku Theatre in Tokyo

One of the most important puppet theaters in Japan is Bunraku. The National Bunraku Theatre in the city of Osaka and The National Theatre located at Tokyo are the two major theatres relating to Bunraku art form.

In the year 1966 the National Theatre of Tokyo was formed and it was located in the Miyake-zaka area of this city. The Bunraku performance is displayed here and is an interesting place to visit.

Bunraku is not actually an entertainment for children; rather the citizens consider it as an art form of serious nature. Although it deals with puppets but the puppets on stage appear unbelievably lively. This art form is accompanied by shamisen music and it is quite different from the puppets of Europe. The most attractive feature of this form of art is that the puppets are often made in the size of a human and it generally cannot move the arms and legs, but in stead it move its fingers to make a fist or it can also move its eye balls. Another noticeable point is that strings are not attached to the puppets as is usually done but are displayed directly to the theatre by a few puppet operators and the audience can see them directly.
A beautiful show is headed by the puppet operators as well as by the "joruri" performer. This performer is the one who narrates the story in a lively and emotional basis to the audience and then is followed by the music of the stringed instrument of shamisen.

Bunraku Theatre is the beautiful cultural theatre that was constructed 400 years back and visitors have till now enjoyed a lot of quality plays in this theatre. Till date classical plays are the best ones performed in Bunraku Theatre and the plays of 17th and 18th centuries are often performed in this theatre in stead of the new ones.
Chikamatsu is a well known playwright of the 17th century who usually wrote plays for the kabuki theater. But the attractive features of Bunraku Theatre made this popular playwright to write classical stories for this theatre.

The Japanese are proud to have a theatre like Bunraku and the government tries their level bets to preserve this cultural heritage. The National Theatre in Tokyo has four performances of Bunraku every year and a lot of people flock there to watch. But recently this theatre is facing certain problems as the youngsters are not attracted to Bunraku and western culture has mostly engrossed them is every possible way. Moreover the creators and the craftsmen of the puppets and the relevant clothes are dying out.

In spite of all the problems that Bunraku faces, it is still considered as the most popular puppet theatres in the world and attracts a good number of audience all over the globe so don't miss it!

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