Bunraku Puppet Theatre

Bunraku grew up in Osaka's merchant theatres and stayed there. Each puppet, roughly half to two thirds life size, is worked by three people in full view: the chief operator with his face uncovered handling head and right arm, two hooded assistants on the left arm and the feet. To one side sits the tayu, who speaks every character and the narration alike, and a shamisen player who sets the pressure of a scene. Within a few minutes the operators stop registering and the figure starts breathing. The repertoire is heavy on domestic tragedy - merchants, debts, obligations and lovers with no way out - written for this stage three hundred years ago.

What you actually see

• Three operators, one puppet - the chief unhooded, working head and right hand in plain sight.
• The tayu and shamisen - one narrator voicing every role from a side platform, script on a lacquered stand.
• Puppet heads and mechanisms - eyebrows, eyes and mouths worked by triggers inside the head.
• The foyer displays - costumes, heads and hands shown open so the engineering is visible.

When to go

The Osaka theatre programmes several runs a year rather than performing continuously, so check dates well before planning around it. Programmes are split into afternoon and evening halves, and single-act tickets sold on the day are the cheapest way in. English earphone guides and summaries are available and genuinely necessary.

Honest expectations

Runs are limited, so many visitors arrive in Osaka to find the theatre dark. A full half-programme is three to four hours of archaic sung narration, and without the earphone guide it becomes an endurance test. The stories are almost uniformly bleak. Seats are tight and the interval queues for bento are long.

Nearby

Kuromon market is a few minutes away, and Dotonbori a short walk north.