Imada Puppet company ［Library ］

Imada village copied down various documents in a "memorandum", in which there is a document recording the events regarding Imada Puppet entitled "The Start of Manipulation in the village".

According to this document, in July 1904 (1st year of Hosei) in order to make the local shrine festival livelier, puppets and curtains were bought for 1 ryo and 1 bun from Noike village, and 13 pairs of puppets were bought from Kyoto for 3 ryo, 1 kan and 26 bun. We understand that it was the start of puppet manipulation.

※The ryo, kan and bun are units of currency dating back to the pre-meiji era.

This is a precious old picture of the performance scenery on the occasion of the 2600th year of Kouki taken at the local Oomiya Hachimangu shrine. A temporary stage was made next to the worship hall, it is only a stage made of straw mats stuck to a handrail made of wood as a suspended backdrop. The tayu and shamisen were sitting on the edge of the worship hall.

The puppet carried by the puppeteer is the one from "Oshu Adachigahara The Song of Sodehagi’s scene" (Oshu Adachigahara Sodehagi Saimon no dan) isn‘t it. A lot of children are sitting on the straw mats lined in the vestibule looking at the people on stage.

※A tayu is a reciter and singer in Bunraku puppet plays.

This is one of the ancient kashiras representing Imada Puppet. The sculpting of the face is deep, it is a very unique form. His gentle eyes and his whitish color are showing that he is a good actor for an old man. The old technique used for the implementation of his hair, eyebrows and beard dates back to the Edo period.

※A kashira is from the head to the neck of the puppet including its head movement mechanism.