The troupe of the National Bunraku Theater is supported by the Japanese government and performs in addition to regular shows in Ōsaka and Tōkyō throughout Japan. Currently, it is the only theatre exclusively reserved for this type of performance, drawing most of its plays from the repertoire of Chikamatsu Monzaemon. The building was damaged by fire a couple of times and was last reconstructed in 1956. In the early nineteenth century, a jōruri singer called Uemura Bunrakuken (植村文楽軒) from Awaji Island (淡路島 Awaji-shima) settled in Ōsaka with his puppeteering ensemble and established a theatre that would be later be known as Bunrakuza (文楽座). Many of the successful plays written for the puppets were adapted for kabuki. At the end of the eighteenth century, many of the best narrators, playwrights and puppeteers had passed away, and ayatsurishibai suffered in competition with the kabuki. The mid-eighteenth century saw the cultural apex of bunraku sadly, its popularity declined shortly afterwards: the Toyotake-za had to close in 1765, the Takemoto-za followed in 1767. The rivalry between the two theatres resulted in an astounding development of new techniques in puppetry. In 1703, a former apprentice of Gidayū, by the name of Toyotake Wakadayu (豊竹若大夫) opened his theatre, the Toyotake-za (豊竹座). Gidayū’s most famous play is Sonezaki Shinju (曽根崎心中, “The Love-Suicide at Sonezaki”). Gidayū has since become the term for all jōruri chanters. Takemoto Gidayū (竹本義太夫, 1651-1724), a renowned jōruri chanter from Kyōto, opened a theatre, the Takemoto-za (竹本座), in 1684 in the Dotombori district of Ōsaka, and together with Chikamatsu Monzaemon (近松門左衛門, real name Sugimori Nobumori 杉森信盛, 1653-1725), created what – since the Meiji Era – has been known as Bunraku. The ayatsurishibai originated probably in Kyōto and spread to Ōsaka and Edo when travelling troupes performed the adventures of a legendary hero called Kimpira (金平) and his acolytes. Jōruri were dramatic plots based on both fact and fiction, usually narrated by itinerant blind men accompanied by rhythms played on a biwa (琵琶, Japanese lute). HistoryIn the late sixteenth century, ningyō (人形, dolls) were for the first time used in combination with jōruri. In 2003, “Ningyo Johruri Bunraku Puppet Theatre” was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Ayatsurishibai performances were accompanied by the recital of dramas (浄瑠璃 jōruri) and by shamisen music. “doll recitals”) or ayatsuri jōruri shibai (操り浄瑠璃芝居 “puppet drama plays”) is traditional Japanese puppetry, derived from ayatsurishibai (操り芝居), a puppet theatre developed in Kyōto and Ōsaka in the early seventeenth century, which is based on the ancient art of puppeteers (傀儡 kairai or kugutsu). Bunraku (文楽), also known as ningyō jōruri (人形浄瑠璃, lit.
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