Tachiyaku Heads (representing good, middle-aged men) in the Ningyo Joruri Theatre

Abstract

The common puppet heads used in the Ningyo Joruri Bunraku theatre have been classified into about 40 types according to the roles in the plays. However, many old puppet heads surviving in the Inadani region in southern Nagano Prefecture are so diverse and characteristic that they deviate from the systematic classification and terminology of current Bunraku puppet heads. Those old puppet heads in the region seem to have been created freely. Nevertheless, in fact they were made following certain fixed patterns.

The puppet operators of the Inadani region strongly desired to act like the puppet masters in Osaka. My assertion, therefore, is that the old puppet heads should be classified according to the categories described in literature dating from the period when they were made (the middle of the Edo era: 1764-1788).

This paper attempts to verify that the puppet head categories written about in the Shibaigakuyazueshui (1804) and Jorurifu (1789-1800) are useful in creating classification for old puppet heads in the Inadani region.

This research on tachiyaku heads, which are the heads of good, middleaged men, is a follow-up to my already published paper on oyaji heads, the heads of old men.