The art of Japanese puppetry appears like nothing else in Western culture. It reinforces the art of audience interpretation, with limited visual clues to the actual details of events. Instead, music and background detail is meant to serve the atmosphere.
The majesty of the art form was on full display last night as the Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Puppet Theater performed at the Moore Theater in the Hopkins Center. The theater was filled nearly to capacity as professors, students, and children alike enjoyed the variety of performances showcasing the spectacular art of Japanese puppetry.
Immediately the audience was captivated by the lone sound of a repeating drum: a single, solitary beat. As the curtains opened, the simple stage focused attention upon the two puppeteers and their puppets. They performed the Sanbaso, a joyful dance praising the gods and asking for a future of prosperity and peace. The giant tree painted in the background, the only object on stage other than the puppeteers and their puppets, symbolized the future and allowed the audience to be mesmerized by the simple purpose of the dance: to be immersed in the music and beat of the dance.
The puppets in the ritual dance wore the most elaborate costumes of the evening. They were adorned with feathers on their chests, a symbol of the crane representing longevity and good fortune. A pine tree, also a symbol of good fortune, is drawn on their culottes. The two dancing figures dressed identically, creating a sense of unity within the entire scene.
Just as their puppets are identical, so too were the puppeteers. Wearing light gray they disappeared into the background, all effort and energy is placed into the elaborate puppets. The puppets become part of the puppeteer and the puppeteer becomes one with the puppet. Together they form a character that the audience learned to love. Their feet bound together, the puppeteers effortlessly glided across the stage on a box with wheels.
The beauty of the scene lay in its simplicity. The scene had no other goal than to showcase the essential art that is Japanese puppetry. Simple moves repeated by the characters coupled with the repetition of beats, created a sole focus on the joy of the art itself. The lack of detail emphasized the need for audience interpretation. The audience had to accept the simplicity as art. In much of American culture art is a bombardment of details, trying for quantity instead of quality. The quality and patience with which the puppeteers practiced their art form was what set this performance apart.
The second segment took a very different approach than the first. It was one of dance and celebration, with little story or character development. The second scene required dialogue, consisted of more characters, and yet still built on the essential ideas of movement and music to create a scene. "Kuzunoha" is a folktale that tells the tragic love story of Kuzunoha, a white fox who was secretly turns into a beautiful princess in order to repay a man who saved her from a samurai. Her son sees her one day as a fox. Heartbroken, Kuzunoha must leave her family.
The background was still simplistic for "Kuzunoha." There was a cardboard bush, a paper screen and a painted house on stage to accompany the four musicians -- two of them playing Japanese stringed instruments and two providing the voices of the characters. Like the puppeteers they are all dressed in uniform- a solid black kimono.
These puppeteers were completely anonymous, covered in black from head to toe. Their puppets became characters, aided by different voices in Japanese and the English subtitles to the left of the stage. Even the subtitles emphasized the art of simplicity, translating only what was necessary into fragmented sentences on a television monitor.
The musical element of this show became crucial in explaining the dispair of Kuzunoha. While she is alive with motion it is the music that conveys her anguish. Drums follow the tragic moment where Kuzunoha "chokes with love for her son." The stoic puppets never change expressions, but with the music and the pattern of their movement conveyed every emotion of a living actor.
Before Kuzunoha left she wrote on the shoji screen "If you think of me with love, come and visit me in the forest of Shinoda. You will find a kuzu leaf and read my sadness." The sheer beauty of a puppet actually writing in Japanese emphasized the meticulous care that this company has put into making their puppets seem alive.
The third, and final portion was based on a best-selling comic novel, "Tokaido-chu Hizakurige." It tells the story of a pair of footloose commoners traveling from Edo, now Tokyo. Their travels are filled with amusement and tricks highlighting the humor of human fear and superstition. The setting again serves as a minor element of the story. However, the lighting served as a much more crucial element. The background was initially lit in a startling cyan blue and changed into daylight and back into the blue hue, transitioning symbolically with the changing day.
The characters in this scene become even more alive, speaking both English and Japanese. "I'm so tired" Yaji-san cries, the first words of English spoken the entire show. Two of the musicians provide dialogue and enhanced it by acting as a sort of Japanese classical beat-box. Bickering back and forth, the two characters played tricks upon each other. The play is even tailored to the Dartmouth audience, with another English interjection. The characters are trying to understand where they are -- as they approach the audience they ask, "What's there?" "Hanover," in a Japanese accent, the other replies.
The show highlights not only of the beauty of a rarely seen Japanese art form, but also of the beauty of Japanese culture. The meticulous attention paid to every detail creates a masterpiece of grandeur and beauty. The key element of Japanese puppetry is subtlety, the puppeteers give each character their own aura with a combination of music, dialogue, and visual details. It was not unlike Georgia O'Keefe's paintings, where a simple geometric design can evoke more beauty than a barrage of details.
