Reading The Master Puppeteer has been an interesting journey. I've jostled over the pronunciations many times. We've had long discussions about Japanese customs and expectations of respect. I still feel that we barely touched the surface as there is so much about the Japanese customs that are foreign to us, but we've certainly been drawn into the story.
The interesting thing is that there are certain personality types which seem to occur all over the world, so no matter where we are and what we study, there are always the best examples to follow, and the negative which also teach us through their outcomes of how they should be avoided.
None of us have ever heard of these Japanese puppets before, so I really wanted to see what could be found to 'show' the children ~ and this is where internet does come into it's own.
I found this documentary, showing how the puppet heads are made:
Here are the Bunraku puppets in action:
You can read more about the history of these classical Japanese puppets here.
We also wanted to learn a little more about the samisen, the instrument used to accompany the plays. It's a long-necked fretless lute, with three strings which were traditionally made of silk.
I did find a fun activity for us to follow-up with at the end of this book. It's a Japanese craft called Kirigami, which produces stunning results. We've run out of time today, but hopefully will be able to have a go at this either on the weekend or early next week. From this site, you can purchase the plans to make 2 Japanese puppets kirigami style; either a geisha or samurai. I've already downloaded a free sample and will trial run this first. They also have a free You Tube video to show how to make it.
Of course, if we do make these, I'll post up the results. :)
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