The Puppet Masters

Source: "The Puppets and the Operators," appearing in  "Bunraku, The Art of the Japanese Puppet Theatre," Donald Keene, Kodansha International Ltd., 1965, p. 56-57.

The three-man puppet is worked by a principal operator, an operator of the left hand, and an operator of the feet. The principal operator inserts his left hand into the puppet from the back under the obi, and his right hand through the opening in the upper part of the puppet's right sleeve. With his left hand he grips the armature which extends down from the puppet's neck, thereby moving the head and (if the head is so equipped) the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth, by strings fastened to flexible whalebone strips. With his right hand he operates the puppet's right hand, using a toggle halfway up the puppet's arm to move the whalebone "springs" in the hands. The operator's left hand also moves the puppet's body, whether in motion across the stage or in agitated breathing as it sit in one spot.

The second operator moves the left hand by means of a stick about fifteen inches long joined to the puppet's arm near the elbow. A stick of this length is necessary because this operator cannot come as close to the puppet as the principal operator, who holds the puppet in his arms. The second operator pulls with his right hand cords attached to a toggle on the manipulating stick. Normally he makes no use of his left hand in moving the puppet.

The third operator works the feet of male puppets, guiding himself by the principal operator's movements. He makes the puppet walk or run, stand or sit, as the text requires. This operator not only must convince the audience that the puppet is actually moving on solid ground, but supply appropriate noises of stamping or running by striking his own feet on the floorboards. Female puppets are not provided with feet unless a role specifically requires them. The operator simulates the motions of legs and feet within the kimono by bunching the hems as the character walks, or by rounding the kimono to suggest knees when the puppet sits. Sometimes use is made of a kind of weighted pillow suspended from the bamboo hoop frame to give an additional roundness to the figures of female puppets when they sit. As in the case of male puppets, excited movements onstage are amplified by the operator's stamping feet.

The operators of the left hand and of the feet are attired completely in black and wear gauzy black hoods over their heads. Originally the principal operators were so attired, in the interests of complete anonymity, but as time went on, they came to rival the Kabuki actors in the care with which they adorned themselves. Today, the principal operators normally perform without a hood and in brightly colored formal costumes, through in plays of a particularly tragic nature, they may wear black, and in new or recently revived works they may also wear a hood. Not only the vanity of the principal operators but public demand to see the faces of the famous operators accounts for their rather excessively conspicuous presence in most plays, a violation of the anonymity which should mark these devoted servants of the puppets.