Togo Bunya-bushi Puppet Theatre

Puppetry to an Older Style of Joruri

The Togo Bunya-bushi Puppet Theatre (東郷文弥節人形浄瑠璃) is a puppet theatre of Togo-cho, Satsumasendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture, performed to the narration and shamisen of bunya-bushi, which in 2008 was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs classifies it as folk performing art, with the Togo Bunya-bushi Puppet Theatre Preservation Society as preservation body.

According to the Agency, it is performed to bunya-bushi, an old style of shamisen music, with male puppets worked by one person and female puppets by two, one of them working the left hand.

Music and Puppets

According to the Agency, the Togo ensemble is a narrator and a shamisen player, with a small drum and wooden clappers. The narration is sentimental and high-pitched, and between passages the shamisen, drum and clappers play a lively accompaniment called dangi.

The puppets have heads about 15 centimetres high and stand about 1 metre tall. The puppeteer's left hand goes in through the back of the costume; warrior puppets have no left hand and are worked by one person, while female puppets have a left hand worked by a second puppeteer. Puppet and puppeteer move together as if dancing to the music.

What to Look For

The Agency explains that bunya-bushi is said to have been created by Okamoto Bunya in Osaka between 1673 and 1704; its sentimental melodies earned it the names weeping style and sorrowful style, and it declined after the eighteenth century as gidayu-bushi rose.

Whereas most traditional puppet theatre in Japan uses gidayu-bushi and three-person puppets, this form preserves the older bunya-bushi and one- or two-person puppets, showing both the history of the art and regional character. In the Edo period, local samurai farmers are said to have staged it after the autumn harvest on the banks of the Sendai River to reward the farmers.

Visiting the Togo Bunya-bushi Puppet Theatre

According to the Agency, performances are irregular, a few times a year at local events. Check with Satsumasendai City or the preservation society for dates.