Evening star., 1923-11-11

IdnL place IN Japan. II Is d sur
/ prise to find this jewel of art
in Osaka, the city of smoke
stacks. It is an art that has been
alive in Japan for more than 250.
years, but that is now crystallized in
the small theater in Osaka called the
Bunraku-za.
Access to the doll theater is through
a big stone arch. or tori, guarded on
each side by large stone lions and
lanterns. The fence that surrounds
the compound shows a line of green
latticed windows, bordered with
black, set at intervals in a white wall
that is decorated with crossbear1s of
vermillion.
The interior Of the theater is ar
ranged like that of an ordinary Jap
anese playhouse, with its square COM
partments or boxes, and there are
galleries on three sides of the house.
The stage itself is similar to that on
which the real players act and is
fully equipped with settings, but it
differs in one respect. for there is a
deep space in which the doll handlers
stand while they are manipulating
their characters.
The figures are large and take from
three to four men to move them To
call them dolls is hardly fair, for they
are so full of dignity and grace. their
movements so suggestive of the whole
gamut of human emotions, that they
are far removed from the trivial and
bana with which the name of puppet
is SO widely associated in the west
= X X
THE doll handlers, who have con-
quered themselves to such a de-
gre that they lose themselves in their
creation, wear gay costumes and their
faces are uncovered, but the minor
performers are garbed in bla ok, with
black hoods and face curtains to hide
all traces Of their Individuality
grouped like shadows behind the ra-
diant moving figures.
The minstrel sits on a rosturm to
the right of the stage, with a must
clan to accompany him. He sings the
descriptions and recites the CONVEX
sations. changing suddenly from the
high treble of youthful princess to
the gruff tones OF a villain initiating
a feudal lord or merchant, a priest
or a beggar. interpreting the drama,
by the ever-changing rhythms Of his
samisen.
For the ancestors of the dolls the
best playwrights have written, and
the dramas produced in the doll thea
ter have become masterpieces Of Jap
ha nf he
characters household words.
Other countries have their doll thea
ters in more or less fourishing condi-
tion, but few have reached such 4
state of perfection as the Bunraku-za
of Osaka. For here is rare combina-
tion-inanimate figures instead of
actors of flesh and blood; doll men
trained from childhood to acquire the
technique to manage the cold and
lifef1ess forms through which flows
the creative genius of the handlers;
minstrels and musicians who have de-
voted their lives to the Interpretation
of the plays, and the best brains of
the dramatist employed in order that
the dolls might be triumphant and
their use fully justified
- k
VoSHIDA BUNGoRO, one of the
chief doll handlers of the Bun
rakuza, may believe that his great
art ought to belong to his native
land; perhaps he thinks it could be
appreciated only in Osaka But that
is not true. It should be worldwide.
He takes a piece of wood, into which
are inserted . head and limbs, and
covers it with a piece of brocade, and
1t becomes a fairy princess, changing
her postures every second, rivaling in
animation any dancer possessed of a
spinal column.
Koshijidayu. the chief interpreter of
the dolls ballad dramas, is a man
of many voices He laughs and cries,
coughs and scolds, is a villain one
moment and the hero the next. His
minstrelsy is something that has been
lost on the stages of other lands, but
it Is fully adequate to express all the
comedy, tragedy, pathos and joyful
ness of these old plays that still
move the busy, bustling people of
modern Japan. The actors of the
theater proper in. Iapan have long
gone to the doll actors Tor inspiration.
and the dramas written for the dolls
are. today the most popular pieces
played on the stages of Toxic and
Osaka.