Bunraku (Wen Le), also known as Ningyo joruri (Ren Xing Jing Liu Li), is a type of traditional Japanese puppet theater that originated in Osaka in the early 17th century. The combination of chanting and shamisen playing is known as joruri, while ningyo is the Japanese term for puppet (or doll in general). It's utilized in a lot of plays. A bunraku stage is quite large; it can be as long as 80 feet and have a backdrop that may be changed during performances. In contrast to modern American puppetry, where all movements are performed by one person using rods attached to the puppet's body or limbs, bunraku requires at least three people to perform on stage: a director who guides the action by moving a stick called a bunriki, a performer who acts out the story with the help of several other puppeteers, and a musician who plays music for the actors. There are many different types of bunraku, but they all share certain common elements: the acting out of scenes between characters, the use of phonetic scripts called kabuki syllabary for speaking words, and the representation of objects on stage. In fact, bunraku can be considered a form of cross-cultural drama because it uses costumes, props, and settings from various cultures around the world (e.g., Japan, China, Europe) to tell a single story. Bunraku is not only used for entertainment purposes but also for educational purposes.