The Visual Movement

Bunraku, Japan’s centuries-old form of puppet theater, combines three distinct and highly refined artistic disciplines: joruri, or ballad narration, shamisen instrumental music, and ningyo tsukai, or the art of puppet manipulation. Each of these skills demands years of intense training (it is said to take at least 25 years to attain the status of omozukai, the main puppet master). But the true magic of bunraku is revealed when the three independent components of movement, words, and music come together—it is this awe-inspiring ensemble work that evokes such deep emotion and wonder. This is extraordinary, multidimensional performance, displaying complexities not found in any other theater in the world. In a major cultural event, Japan’s foremost exponent of this singular living art form—a company that includes four “Living National Treasures”—visits the United States for the first time since 1983.

Program: Date Musume Koi no Higanoko (Oshichi of the Fire Watch Tower) (1773), Tsubosaka Kannon Reigenki (Miracle at the Tsubosaka Kannon Temple) (1887), and an introduction to bunraku

October 13th at 8pm and 14th at 3pm at the University of California, Berkeley

October 18-20th at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center