Ningyou Shibai

Jane Marie Law states in “In the Shape of a Person” that puppets have a “power of generalization.” By this, Law means that puppets have the ability to portray humans in general, instead of specific individuals. This can be seen in the third scene of Sorenari Shinjū (Much Ado About Love Suicides), a contemporary bunraku play written by Koki Mitani. It is about a manju seller who attempts to profit off of a fad of committing love suicide in Sonezaki, near his shop. The rise and fall of the manju seller’s business is seen in the third scene. This scene shows the power of puppets to generalize moods as well, which furthers puppets’ power of generalization beyond Law’s description. The third scene of the play displays puppets’ power of generalization in its portrayal of servants, love suicide couples, and solitude.

The power of puppets to generalize people can be seen when servants do the manju seller’s wife’s nails. Servants do his wife’s nails when the manju seller’s business is at its height. All of the servants are dressed the same and have similar facial features and hairstyles. In bunraku, a puppet’s face can signify a puppet’s age, sex, class, social status, or character type (Goto Shizuo, Alan Cummings, “Bunraku: Puppet Theatre,” A History of Japanese Theatre, p. 155). The basic heads of these puppets characterize them as servants. Puppeteer and theatre critic Sergei Obraztsov wrote that a puppet “is a plastic generalization of a living being.” The personhood of these puppets is not important; only their role as a servant to the manju seller and his wife is important. Their role is to be a visual manifestation of the manju seller and his wife’s newfound riches. It would be difficult to achieve the same effect with human actors as each human actor would appear as an individual and not as a general servant.

(The servants)

Additionally, the puppetry’s power to generalize is employed in the depiction of love suicide couples. At the beginning of the scene, two couples who had intentions to commit suicide are seen in the shop. The puppets that comprise the two couples look remarkably similar. Their faces are practically identical, with only small differences in the eyebrows and clothing. This is a product of bunraku using puppet heads to signify character types and statuses. Thus, the puppets in these couples are generalized as love suicide couples. Further lending to their power to generalize love suicide couples is that these characters lack spoken lines from the chanter. Instead, they pantomime their dialogue. This further lends to puppets’ ability to generalize as it leaves these puppets voiceless and lacking individual identities. Instead, they are simply representative of couples who intend to commit love suicide. It would be difficult to achieve the same effect with human actors as the same human actors would have to play both couples. It would be confusing if the same actors played both couples as it would seem that the first couple had just changed clothes and returned due to the individuality human actors have. Conversely, puppets lack the same individuality and thus are easily able to be general representative for a group.

(First Couple)

(Second Couple)

Further, when the manju seller and his wife attend the bunraku play that drives business away from their area, the couple committing love suicide in the play appears similiar to the first couple the manju seller and his wife saved from committing suicide. The couples have practically the same faces. Only small differences between the puppets are apparent, such as the eyebrows and mouth of the male puppets and hairstyle of the female puppets. The heads are likely similar to reflect that both are couples committing love suicide. The clothing is largely different between the puppets, possibly owing to the difference in status between the characters in the play and the saved couple. The couple in the play and the saved couple likely appear differently from the couples in the shop because they are more notable plot-wise and have dialogue. Their similarity potentially owes to the role the theatre plays in both of these attempts at love suicide. In one case, the suicide is in a play. In the other, the couple was inspired by a play. It would be difficult to achieve the same connections with human actors as human actors would potentially have to play puppets in the love suicide play. If puppets were still used for the play within the play, but human actors were used for the saved couple, it would be difficult to achieve the same connection as it would be hard to create puppets that appear and move that similarly to humans.

(Male puppet in the play within the play)

(Female puppet in the play within the play)

(Male puppet of the saved couple)

(Female puppet of the saved couple)

Going further than Law, puppets have a power to generalize mood as well. In this scene, a puppet of a cuckoo is used to show solitude. When a new bunraku play turns the love suicide couples to a new spot to commit suicide, the manju seller’s business takes a nosedive. A cuckoo named “the cuckoo of solitude” appears on stage and caws with the slump in business. The cuckoo had been in the shop prior to the rise of the business. Whether the cuckoo actually returned to the shop is not important. Instead, the concept of solitude brought with it is important. The presence of the small cuckoo now and the absence of the large crowds seen earlier make for a large contrast. The sound of the cuckoo’s caw makes the shop feel open and empty. Additionally, a cuckoo was used earlier in the scene to show the passage of time. As such, the cuckoo of solitude presents a generalized sense of solitude over a period of time. The cuckoo puppet has the power to generalize the solitude of the shop and symbolizes how the shop has returned to the failure it was before all by just flying through the shop.

One of the perspectives that author Jane Marie Law states as a reason for puppet theater to be so appealing is what she describes as “the human need to see and participate in the reversal of death.” Puppetry, it can be argued, is the act of instilling life into inanimate objects. Puppets, on their own, are simply constructions of wood, cloth, and various mechanics. This collection of lifeless matter, however, can be given life in a seemingly magical way through the skillful manipulation of puppeteers.

Of course, just as life is given to the puppets, so too can life be taken away. It is not uncommon, in bunraku (Japanese puppet theater), for there to be dramatic (and often comedic) stories featuring suicide and death. “Much Ado About Love Suicides,” written and directed by Koki Mitani, is a contemporary bunraku play that riffs off of the popular love suicide plays often found in bunraku puppet theater.

Towards the end of the performance, the protagonist and his wife attempt to commit suicide by drowning themselves in a river. All does not go according to plan, however, and Hanbei pulls himself and his wife out of the river, lamenting at how agonizing killing one’s self actually is. In this instance, of course, there really is no agony felt by the wooden puppet itself, but the puppeteers are able to so successfully move the puppet in a way that anyone in the audience could easily see the pain and frustration felt by the character. The suffering is not real, of course, but through puppetry, it can be made real, in a sense.

While human actors can surely portray suffering and death in very convincing ways, especially aided with modern technology, puppets allow for the absolute death of characters. The puppets themselves are not actors pretending to die, but instead are entities upon themselves who can be brought to life, killed, and then brought to life again.

What does the technology of the puppet make possible or hinder in performance?

To answer this question, this blog is devoted to an understanding of what puppetry can do through the lens of Japanese puppet theater (bunraku) and the philosophical writings of Jane-Marie Law’s, particularly “In the Shape of a Person.”

A quick primer on bunraku and three viewpoints on the initial question are described through scene analysis of the Mitani Bunraku play “ Sorenari Shinju” (Much Ado about Love Suicides).

The first viewpoint, Who is the Puppet, Who is the Puppeteer, concerns Law’s paradigm of “A Human Being as an All-Powerful God.”  The paradigm describes the God-like and God responsible space of the playwright as a balm to the top down oppression of Early Modern Japan.

The second viewpoint concerns the ability for puppets to allow humanity to “Triumph Over Death.” Through puppetry, mortals are able to imbue inanimate forms (puppets) with life, which, in a way, brings them back from the dead.

The scene between Hanbei the cake seller and Chikamatsu the playwright can be viewed as a dissertation on Marie-Jane Law’s concept of “A Human Being as an All-Powerful God.”  She states, “Ironically, the prominence of tragedies in the puppet theater in the end tells us that even when given the chance to become God, human beings repeat God’s mistakes (and, one could argue, God’s sadism).”  This essay traces staging and dialog decisions throughout the entire play that explicate this point.

The premise of the play is that the tragedies of Chikamatsu have caused a copycat suicide craze that is ruining the business of the cake seller Hanbei. He patrols the forest encouraging couples to kill themselves somewhere else to protect his business.  Out of this dire situation Hanbei and his wife Okatsu eventually create a profitable business of advising suicidal couples and then selling them souvenir cakes.  All is well until Chikamatsu stages another suicide play in a different region throwing the cake selling couple into deep debt. Hanbei’s meeting with Chikamatsu leaves him with the idea that the only way they can get out of debt and ensure their daughter’s future is to kill themselves to encourage the writing of a new play.

Mitani approaches the issue of the play and the role of the playwright even before the play starts with what can only be called a cameo.  Objectively the Mitani puppet is doing housekeeping announcements – cell phones, exits, and a bit of joking silliness.  There is no chanting or shamisen, just spoken vernacular Japanese.  Beyond the inherent charm, this opening makes the case that the playwright’s relationship to the play is going to be a central theme.  This follows Foucault. Once the author’s work is set loose in the world, he becomes irrelevant, an argument that would not work if the real Mitani said the same lines.

Unusual staging choices make it clear that we are engaged in a dialog of seeming and actual control.  All the puppeteers are hooded into anonymity. Conversely, the chanters and shamisen players are behind and above the action in a superior position.  While the puppeteers have disappeared, the illusion of the puppets speaking is removed. Simultaneously, they gain and lose agency.

That the play assays authorial responsibility is further made clear from the opening scene.  The introductory chants indicate that the suicidal lovers are not the famous ones from Chikamatsu’s Love Suicides of Sonezhaki.  The lovers then recite lines from Chikamatsu’s play at a ridiculous length. 

The puppets are puppets emulating puppets emulating humans as scripted by Chikamatsu as interpreted by Mitani.  They are devoid of agency.  This leads to other questions. Do humans have agency or are we puppets?  Is the playwright responsible for culture or merely reflects culture?  This scene allows the audience to approach this question in the abstract without getting entangled with human actors and an actual suicide attempt, part of  Jane-Marie Law’s concept of “Freedom of Expression.”

After some number of years (pointed to by aging of the daughter puppet) a catastrophe occurs, and the formerly wealthy cake sellers must now deal with a new suicide-fad play set in a different locale.  A scene at the heart of the issue shows the unhappy cake sellers watching the new play. The suicidal lover puppets are virtually interchangeable with the suicidal couple in the opening scene, something that dawns slowly as they remove head coverings. This tracks with Law’s concept of puppets as generalized paradigms.   In a sense they really are the same as they have the same author and speak very similar lines. Hanbei and Okatsu react differently this time.  Instead of Hanbei’s anger and his wife’s calm advice we see them both watching the play with rapt emotion.  This demonstrates the power of the playwright over real life.

After the literal collapse of the cake business, Hanbei decides to directly confront Chikamatsu.  Irrationally, but totally consistent with Mitani’s artistic intent, he states “I’m fed up with him dictating my life to me.”  By implication, Hanbei sees Chikamatsu as a god with himself as a puppet.

As the central scene opens, Chickamatsu is seated middle, upstage and high.   He is bent over his writing, brush strokes smooth and elegant.  It is clear that he is in the superior position. Hanbei enters from stage left. The ensuing dialog stacks relationships, a puppet playwright being harried by another puppet about the effect of his latest puppet play on an animated cake business.  Chikamatsu brushes him off with “Can’t you see I’m working?  It can wait.” He doesn’t look up.   God is busy with creation and does not want to be disturbed.

Hanbei presses on, offering cake, making small talk but only getting Chikamatsu’s attention when he mentions Sonezaki.  This causes Chikamatsu to issue a moral judgment on the unscrupulous cake sellers making money on his fame and on suicidal lovers.  He doesn’t note his own culpability in the suicides merely the cake seller’s venality at which point he returns to writing.

Hanbei becomes progressively more agitated as evidenced by his frenetic movements.  He yells “Enough is enough!” causing Chikamatsu to react as though struck although his response to Hanbei is to mind his language.  Now having his attention Hanbei lays out his case stating that his “life is in tatters” and that it is Chikamatsu’s fault thus assigning all agency and blame for his condition.  The interchange continues with Hanbei becoming abusive causing Chikamatsu to stop and listen again after which he brushes him off with “What I write is up to me.” It is instructive that it is only under direct assault that Chikamatsu looks directly at Hanbei.  Hanbei is literally is beneath his gaze.

Hanbei continues his argument that Chikamatsu should not create stories from real life.  This is perhaps a moment when we can hear Mitani coming through.  Up till now Hanbei’s assertions can be assigned to monetary concerns, but this is a moral argument appropriate to Mitani’s aesthetic plan but really out of place in Hanbei’s mouth.  He brings up the case of Koheiji, the villain of the Sonezaku suicide play.  His statement that because of the play, Koheiji will always be remembered as a villain which is exactly true.  Chikamatsu makes the interesting response that he writes what the audience wants, effectively making him the audience’s puppet. The staging for this is interesting in that Koheiji makes an appearance stage left at the same level as Chikamatsu but bathed in an unhealthy bluish light.  

The light and height are similar to that of the lovers in the Awajima scene. While Hanbei remonstrates with Chikamatsu, Koheiji performs a pantomime of pain.  Chikamatsu admits going a bit overboard for effect as Koheiji slumps and the blue light goes out.  This makes the case that Koheiji exists only because of the playwright and when his creation is disavowed it ceases to exist, certainly God-like.

Hanbei then presses the point that Chikamatsu’s glorification of suicide causes suicides. This is certainly not the strongest argument for a cake seller who depends on suicidal lovers.  Chikamatsu notes that his play was very well received and comparatively few people were harmed, which by extension is not really his concern being God and all. Having tried all manner of contradictory arguments, Hanbei begs for a new suicidal play as a supplicant.

Chikamatsu then states that all he needs is a really interesting suicide clearly stepping over the line between an author observing and an author interfering with reality.

Mitani threads the line between an author’s right to create their own universe and the effect of that universe on the real world.  On one hand the playwright is God and on the other hand the playwright is a puppet at the whims of an audience.  This becomes a stacked meta narrative with a puppet playwright arguing for both his near divinity and his own slavishness to audience whim with another puppet.  This demonstrates the rationale for Mitani choosing bunraku as a medium.  Much Ado About Love Suicides was purpose built as a bunraku play to explicate authorial responsibility.  The multi-layer relationships of puppets to puppet playwrights makes the point powerfully.

Mitani’s own final word is in the last scene with Chikamatsu.  Hanbei and Okatsu determine to commit suicide for strictly monetary reasons. Chikamatsu makes his final appearance high and to stage right.  He observes their forced laughter with movements that exemplify sadness. But when they turn to leave, he hides his face with his fan and does not intervene.  The show must go on.

Bunraku is a form of puppet theater that began in the 17th Century.  Topics include both historical dramas and tragedies of everyday life.  The formal name, ningyō jōruri combines the word for doll, or puppet – ningyō, with the word for narrative music, jōruri.  When performed it is a seamless choreography of puppets, puppeteers, chanters and shamisen players.

https://www2.ntj.jac.go.jp/unesco/bunraku/sp/stage/stage1.html

The bunraku stage features a sunken area called the funazoka or ship’s hold. Audience right is a rotating stage called a yuka where the chanter and the shamisen player sits.  The sunken area and the railing in front of it allow for the illusion of the puppets sitting or walking on a solid surface.

http://www.glopad.org/jparc/?q=en/adachi/stage

The puppets themselves are between half and three quarters life size. All but the simplest puppets are handled by three puppeteers with the master puppeteer handling head inclination and special effects like eye and mouth movements along with control of one arm. In general the master puppeteer is not hooded.  Puppets have exposed heads, hands and, for male puppets, feet.  An array of stock heads are used that define the role, age, sex and social class of the puppet.

https://www.japan-zone.com/culture/bunraku.shtml