Prompt: Contrast two forms of medieval theater with two forms of Japanese theater. What differentiates the forms in relation to philosophical, political, or aesthetic objectives? Why have Japanese theater forms endured so long while medieval theater forms have not endured so well into our own time?

After studying Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman theater, as well as Medieval and Renaissance forms of theater, it was time to move even more east to study ancient Japanese theater. What interested me in particular was Bunraku and Kabuki - two of the four styles of Japanese theater. Below, I will see exactly how different

Bunraku and Kabuki styles of theater are philosophically, politically, and aesthetically. 

Bunraku is a show performed by puppets that are manipulated by humans on a small stage. Each puppet is controlled by three puppeteers (the first puppeteer controls the eyelids, eyeballs, eyebrows, mouth, and the right arm, the second puppeteer controls the left arm only, and the third controls the legs). As the puppeteers are manipulating the puppets, the chanter (tayu) provides the voices of all the characters and the shamisen player presents music for a dramatic effect. Bunraku became popular in the late 17th century when playwright Chickamatsu Monzaemon and 

chanter Takemoto Gidayu worked together and created the Takemoto puppet theater in 1684 (Overview of Bunraku Puppet Theater). Many of these plays had themes based off of Buddhist and Confucian morals.  

Above: Performers are performing "Katsuragawa -Renrinoshigarami" at the National Bunraku Theater

Kabuki theater is a Japanese performance that with women performers. However, due to some moral issues, women were banned, which benefited the Kabuki theater by making the playwrights concentrate more on drama, rather than beauty. Even so, Kabuki theater had very elaborate costumes, and had many spectacular scenic effects. Kabuki, unlike Noh theater, was innovative and changed quite a bit and because of that, it was the most popular of the four types of Japanese theater. Performances were held on large stages and often involved a romance.

Kabuki Performers often wore very elaborate costumes

The main difference between Bunraku and Kabuki is the fact that Bunraku uses puppets while Kabuki performers did not. There are other differences, such as the theater space size, and costumes as well as the type of audience Lastly, Bunraku resists change while Kabuki accepts it. Bunraku theater was actually influenced by Kabuki theater, but it concentrated more on the story and drama rather than the characters.

Overall, these two types of Japanese theater interest me a lot. Hopefully, I will someday and go see one of these fascinating types of play.

Sources:

http://web-japan.org/museum/bunraku/about_bu.html

http://www.pref.osaka.jp/en/attraction/culture/bunraku/index.html

http://park.org/Japan/Kabuki/about/overview.html