Bunraku Puppet Theater: A 2007 interview with Mr. Seishiro Tsurusawa, a puppet stage musician

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Bunraku is one of Japan’s most important and oldest classical theatre forms, as well known as noh and kabuki theatre. The obvious difference with Bunraku is that the performers are not people but puppets. The Bunraku theater artform is identified with Osaka first, and Tokyo second. But there are other places in Japan also strongly linked with Bunraku puppet theatre.

Each Bunraku puppet is operated by three people, while a storyteller, called a tayu, tells the story. In the background, a shamisen players maintain the perfect musical tension. [A shamisen is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese sanxian instrument).

In 2007, in Kyoto, YJPT spoke with Mr. Seishiro Tsurusawa, a professional Bunraku shamisen player for 12 years (at the time of the interview). Believe it or not, 12 years of experience in the Bunraku tradition means the apprenticeship is over! Bunraku performers are only considered to be professionals after 20 years or so. To be considered a true master takes 30 to 40 years!

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Bunraku: a world of patience and tolerance

There are several places in Japan where the Bunraku tradition or ningyo joruri (doll theater) has been handed down and preserved for centuries. Mr. Tsurusawa was born and grew up one of these areas: Nagano Prefecture. As a boy he was often with his father, an amateur member of a local Bunraku group, while the group practiced traditional joruri theater plays.

When he was a junior high school student, he belonged to the Bunraku club and was one of the three people that manipulated a puppet.

ST:“The more I learned about it, the stronger my wish became to be a professional puppet player at the National Bunraku Theatre in Osaka, which is the center of Bunraku world.”

Just after he finished high school, he left his hometown and moved to Osaka. Anyone who wishes to be a Bunraku performer can try out. The Osaka theater has a two-year training course during which students learn the basics of Bunraku including puppet operation, shamisen (three string instrument) music, history, and related forms of traditional Japanese culture like the tea ceremony.

Reflections on “life” on the stage

ST: “I think it is a very good idea to open the doors of Bunraku to all who are interested. However, curiosity alone cannot lead one to the stage and a career. Finishing the first two years of introductory training is easy enough but that is really nothing if you consider that a performer only becomes a full-fledged professional after 20 years or so, and to be considered a true master takes 30 or even 40 years. Naturally, there are no tests: it is a matter of knowledge and how those around you assess you. For this reason, the people that survive in the Bunraku world must have an exceptionally strong will and almost infinite patience. The real struggle starts from the point that one pledges oneself to the Bunraku journey without expectation.”

When a puppet operator starts his career, he is responsible for the puppet’s legs for the first 10 years of his stage life. Then, he spends another 10 years learning to manipulate the left side of the puppet body, and then, finally, he is ready to wear the black cape and stand directly behind the puppet on stage and manipulate the head.

ST: “Bunraku is said to be the most difficult theatre form in Japan, and I really feel that this is true. Many of the character roles cannot be attempted in the early stages of our various levels of apprenticeship. For example, the tayu (storyteller) must express everything in the story: all characters’ dialogue, the scenery, and situation explanations, everything that needs to be said for the audience to understand what is happening on stage. For the shamisen players it is not enough to just play the score; to get it just right it must convey a complex range and tone of feelings and time . . . Season, time, distance and more must be expressed with only three strings. We are not just musicians. It is a role that involves great awareness and deep experience to get it just right.”

As a performer, in any performance art, becomes older and more experienced their work becomes most subtle and skilled in unimaginable ways. This requires endless practice and a high level of maturity and focus. This does not come easily to anyone in the Bunraku world.

In 2003, Bunraku was designated as a UNESCO World Intangible Heritage. Between regular seasonal performances in Osaka and Tokyo, bunraku performers travel and perform in other cities in Japan and overseas.

ST: “I would like to introduce this unique culture to the world.” Seishiro says. “It is a great pleasure to perform Bunraku overseas and everywhere we go it is accepted as a great world art form. However, I still feel that Bunraku plays are the most sublime and impressive when they are seen in their native land: Japan.”

Seishiro’s future hopes as a Bunraku performer

Seishiro knocked on the door of the Osaka National Bunraku Theatre for the first time in 1993.

He constantly feels that he is immature and far from an expert when he observes, and experiences seasoned senior players on the stage.

ST: “I sometimes feel that I am hindered by their great performance abilities and depth.”

And yet he knows deep down that the road he has chosen is long and difficult.

ST: "I know the world is changing quickly. And yet the world of Bunraku remains the same as it was hundreds of years ago. Sure, we try new things sometimes but not really for real. Our role is very specific if you think about it. We are here to pass everything on to the next generation, as it has been for so long . . . This awareness ultimately is what lies at the very heart of Bunraku and so many other traditions. In these worlds there is no death only eternal life.”

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