Year 12: IB Theatre - Research Presentation

A scene from bunraku rehearsals at the National Bunraku Theatre in Osaka. Photo: Jukka O. Miettinen.

A lovely woman is looking at herself in the looking glass; she puts rouge on her cheeks, smoothes out and blackens her eyebrows, ties up her hair high above her forehead and puts a horn comb in her bun. She is smiling to herself in the mirror. She has three servants: they hold her mirror, put brushes into her tiny hands, help her to put the comb in the bun. Two of them are clad in black cloaks, with hoods covering their heads, like clansmen in the Southern states; the face of the third is uncovered, but he never looks at his mistress. The lovely lady is a puppet, and her three servants are puppeteers.