July 13th, 2009
The Puppetry of Bunraku in Hong Kong
There many choices for entertainment when one is visiting and staying in one of the best Hong Kong hotels. One form is colorful and exciting and magical and that is the theater of Banraku. This is a story-telling tradition that is illustrated by puppets, and began as two separate are forms. This combination has no known date or time when the traveling puppets actors joined up with the story tellers, but the first organized theater was established in 1684, by Takemoto Gidayu. Until then both of these forms were known as traveling shows. Gidayu was a well known voice in the story telling circles, often providing the narration . He became famous for the intimate and emotional way he told the story, as if he could get into the hearts of the various characters and knew their stories as his own.
He teamed up with one of the most famous playwrights in Japan at the time, and to this day, Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Monzaemon often kept many of his traditional techniques such as the fantasy and magical elements, but was extremely well known for doing this in a way that retain a very human element. Loyalty was a main theme in many of his works. And the sad truth when characters do not remain so with friends and family. He was a bit like an Asian Shakespeare in theme and content of his plays. He also created many plays about the merchants, a class that was still considered inferior even as they were become more and more economically influential. He wrote love stories, in which the characters choose emotion over loyalty, and the imagination of the audiences was ignited. His works were many times copied, but never equalled.
When the two died it was the end of an era, but the form of Bunraku entered somewhat of a golden age of popularity and production. The public was interested in the intriguing puppetry as well as the stories being illustrated. The Kabuki authors would write quite often for the puppets, and the entire form became extremely stylized. The two forms of theater did look to each other for new ideas and innovative ways to increase the creations, and to draw an audience. There are many of both forms of this theater in Hong Kong today, and the shows are just enchanting.
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