#kokimitani

[yanarchy072]

・ ・ 『鎌倉殿の13人』が終わった。 ・ 「コワい」「ホラー」などと揶揄されてきた稀な大河ドラマだったが、コレがさら〜っと流されて教えられてきた受験用の日本史とは違う、中世の人間ではない人としての骨肉を平和ボケの日本人にリアル感を与えた三谷幸喜はスゴいね！ 平家は家族を重んじたが、源氏は血を重んじた。それを義時は分かっていた。 時代の潮流は、田舎の小倅が意外にアンテナを伸ばして受信するモノだ。いやいや、そーゆうモノだ。 笑いが「松本以前、松本以後」というが、幕末までの日本は「鎌倉以前、鎌倉以後」だった。そーゆうモノだ。 ・ #鎌倉殿の13人 #THE13LORDSOFTHESHOGUN #三谷幸喜 #KokiMitani ・ #小栗旬 #北条義時 #小池栄子 #北条政子 #坂口健太郎 #北条泰時 ・ #大河ドラマ #taigadrama #NHK ・ #ドラマ #TVseries #instatv #tvstagram #instamusic #musicstagram ・ #映画 #movie #ビバムビ #instamovie #moviestagram #instagood #instapic (Tokyo Japan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmWmlPJp99Q/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#鎌倉殿の13人 #the13lordsoftheshogun #三谷幸喜 #kokimitani #小栗旬 #北条義時 #小池栄子 #北条政子 #坂口健太郎 #北条泰時 #大河ドラマ #taigadrama #nhk #ドラマ #tvseries #instatv #tvstagram #instamusic #musicstagram #映画 #movie #ビバムビ #instamovie #moviestagram #instagood #instapic

[ningyoushibai]

Puppetry and the Power of Generalization

Jane Marie Law states in “In the Shape of a Person” that puppets have a “power of generalization.” By this, Law means that puppets have the ability to portray humans in general, instead of specific individuals. This can be seen in the third scene of Sorenari Shinjū (Much Ado About Love Suicides), a contemporary bunraku play written by Koki Mitani. It is about a manju seller who attempts to profit off of a fad of committing love suicide in Sonezaki, near his shop. The rise and fall of the manju seller’s business is seen in the third scene. This scene shows the power of puppets to generalize moods as well, which furthers puppets’ power of generalization beyond Law’s description. The third scene of the play displays puppets’ power of generalization in its portrayal of servants, love suicide couples, and solitude.

The power of puppets to generalize people can be seen when servants do the manju seller’s wife’s nails. Servants do his wife’s nails when the manju seller’s business is at its height. All of the servants are dressed the same and have similar facial features and hairstyles. In bunraku, a puppet’s face can signify a puppet’s age, sex, class, social status, or character type (Goto Shizuo, Alan Cummings, “Bunraku: Puppet Theatre,” A History of Japanese Theatre, p. 155). The basic heads of these puppets characterize them as servants. Puppeteer and theatre critic Sergei Obraztsov wrote that a puppet “is a plastic generalization of a living being.” The personhood of these puppets is not important; only their role as a servant to the manju seller and his wife is important. Their role is to be a visual manifestation of the manju seller and his wife’s newfound riches. It would be difficult to achieve the same effect with human actors as each human actor would appear as an individual and not as a general servant.

(The servants)

Additionally, the puppetry’s power to generalize is employed in the depiction of love suicide couples. At the beginning of the scene, two couples who had intentions to commit suicide are seen in the shop. The puppets that comprise the two couples look remarkably similar. Their faces are practically identical, with only small differences in the eyebrows and clothing. This is a product of bunraku using puppet heads to signify character types and statuses. Thus, the puppets in these couples are generalized as love suicide couples. Further lending to their power to generalize love suicide couples is that these characters lack spoken lines from the chanter. Instead, they pantomime their dialogue. This further lends to puppets’ ability to generalize as it leaves these puppets voiceless and lacking individual identities. Instead, they are simply representative of couples who intend to commit love suicide. It would be difficult to achieve the same effect with human actors as the same human actors would have to play both couples. It would be confusing if the same actors played both couples as it would seem that the first couple had just changed clothes and returned due to the individuality human actors have. Conversely, puppets lack the same individuality and thus are easily able to be general representative for a group.

(First Couple)

(Second Couple)

Further, when the manju seller and his wife attend the bunraku play that drives business away from their area, the couple committing love suicide in the play appears similiar to the first couple the manju seller and his wife saved from committing suicide. The couples have practically the same faces. Only small differences between the puppets are apparent, such as the eyebrows and mouth of the male puppets and hairstyle of the female puppets. The heads are likely similar to reflect that both are couples committing love suicide. The clothing is largely different between the puppets, possibly owing to the difference in status between the characters in the play and the saved couple. The couple in the play and the saved couple likely appear differently from the couples in the shop because they are more notable plot-wise and have dialogue. Their similarity potentially owes to the role the theatre plays in both of these attempts at love suicide. In one case, the suicide is in a play. In the other, the couple was inspired by a play. It would be difficult to achieve the same connections with human actors as human actors would potentially have to play puppets in the love suicide play. If puppets were still used for the play within the play, but human actors were used for the saved couple, it would be difficult to achieve the same connection as it would be hard to create puppets that appear and move that similarly to humans.

(Male puppet in the play within the play)

(Female puppet in the play within the play)

(Male puppet of the saved couple)

(Female puppet of the saved couple)

Going further than Law, puppets have a power to generalize mood as well. In this scene, a puppet of a cuckoo is used to show solitude. When a new bunraku play turns the love suicide couples to a new spot to commit suicide, the manju seller’s business takes a nosedive. A cuckoo named “the cuckoo of solitude” appears on stage and caws with the slump in business. The cuckoo had been in the shop prior to the rise of the business. Whether the cuckoo actually returned to the shop is not important. Instead, the concept of solitude brought with it is important. The presence of the small cuckoo now and the absence of the large crowds seen earlier make for a large contrast. The sound of the cuckoo’s caw makes the shop feel open and empty. Additionally, a cuckoo was used earlier in the scene to show the passage of time. As such, the cuckoo of solitude presents a generalized sense of solitude over a period of time. The cuckoo puppet has the power to generalize the solitude of the shop and symbolizes how the shop has returned to the failure it was before all by just flying through the shop.

Overall, the third scene of Koki Mitani’s Sorenari Shinjū shows puppets’ power of generalization as described by Law. The power Law ascribes to puppets to represent a general group is present in this scene’s portrayal of servants and love suicide couples. Going further than Law, puppets have the power to generalize a mood, such as solitude, as seen with the cuckoo of solitude. Many of the puppets in this scene are used to represent general groups and ideas instead of specific individuals.

#bunraku #mitani bunraku #shinju #cuckoo #puppets #puppet #Japan #JaneMarieLaw #Japanese #Manju #KokiMitani #Jane Marie Law #Koki Mitani #Sorenari Shinju