Himeji, Bunraku, and the Castle in Osaka

I knew that Himeji Castle was under construction, but Lonely Planet Japan made the work seem like no big deal, so I convinced Greg to spend a couple of hours in Himeji before we took the train to Osaka. 

Instead of a castle, we got a scaffold and tarp covered building.  The lack of a castle to take pretty pictures of did not deter us from wandering around the city.  

Fish sculpture with tarped Himeji Castle in the background.

We saw a circus tent with families lined up, a model reproduction of Himeji Castle in a shopping mall, a temple, and a covered pedestrian only shopping street.  We bought some lunch at a grocery store and walked back to the train station to travel to Osaka.

Once in Osaka, we boarded the loop train and got off at the station nearest the castle.  We had not yet visited a castle in Japan and we were both excited to see how the experience differed from our European castle experience.

Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle was not exactly what we had hoped it would be. We knew this castle wasn't original, but we were expecting a reproduction of the original.  After being damaged and mostly destroyed several times over, the castle was rebuilt in the 1990s with concrete as a museum with modern conveniences.

Along with the elevator were museum exhibitions, which were informative, but not what we were interested in.   We wanted to see how royalty in Japan lived.

Osaka Castle

The time was getting late and we still had to travel across town to get to the National Bunraku Theater in time for the 4pm performance. Slightly disappointed, we quickly looked through the 8 floors of the Osaka Castle and then hurried to the  nearest metro station.  After some difficulty with figuring out the metro fare and a discussion with the attendant, we purchased tickets, walked through the turnstiles, and boarded the metro train.

National Bunraku Theater, Osaka. 

We had bought tickets for a New Year's bunraku performance.  Bunraku is puppet-theater in which a choral narrator and a musical narrator sit stage left down stage.  The main action occurs center stage with 2 or 3 puppets each operated by 3 people.  A puppeteer must work on his craft for about 30 years before he can become the main puppeteer and operate both the head and the right hand.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the performance or the inside of the theater, but I was able to find this awesome video explaining the art of bunraku and summarizing one of the plays we saw (3:15 into the video).

A short explanation of bunraku followed by a summary (at 3:15) of the play 

we saw, "Tsubosaka-kannon Reigenki."

The performance we saw included excerpts from two longer plays. There are two daily performances (2 different shows) during January. We saw the second performance on opening day.

Bunraku poster for the performance we saw at

 the National Bunraku Theater in Osaka.

The audience was made up of middle-aged Japanese people and a few tourists.  By the end of the hours-long performance, I was going crazy with discomfort.  I was wriggling and fidgeting; I couldn't help myself.  I don't think any of the Japanese people moved at all! They were completely still and attentive the entire four hours.  I've never seen such an interested audience.

Although I very much enjoyed the show, I admit I became bored toward the end.  After the performance, Greg and I were talking and we discovered that in the penultimate scene where the wife threw herself off a cliff to join her suicidal, dead husband, we were both thinking the same thought, "Go on! Do it! Jump! Jump! Get it over with!"

We are both glad we had the opportunity to see the show.  Before we came to Japan, Greg asked me what I wanted to do while here.  I told him I wanted to see a kabuki play or other traditional theater.  While studying for my teacher's certification in drama, I learned about kabuki, bunraku, and noh theater. Reading about these traditional types of drama is one thing, but seeing a performance in person is completely different.

Tired and with sore bums, we left the theater and again walked to the nearest train station.  Fortunately for us with our JR rail passes, Osaka is circled by train stations and the bunraku theater wasn't terribly far from a station.

We didn't make it back to Kyoto until quite late.