Page:Japanese Literature (Keene).pdf/71

by all the men who contributed importantly to the advance of the art of the puppet theatre, and the history of the development of this art might almost be made in terms of steps away from realism. Take, for instance, the technique of handling the puppets. At first the operators were hidden in such a way that the audience could see only the puppets, which were either manipulated by strings from above, like our marionettes, or, more commonly, held up from below by an operator with his hands inside the puppet’s body. The chanter was also concealed, to increase the illusion that it was the puppet who was acting and talking by himself. As time went on, however, the size of the puppets increased until they were about two-thirds that of the operators, and various developments made it necessary for three men to work each of the important puppet figures. This they did in full view of the audience. The chanter also emerged from his place of concealment. When we see pictures of the puppet theatre with the three men clad in bright or sombre costumes standing beside each puppet and the row of musicians seated to the side, it seems impossible that any semblance of dramatic illusion could be preserved. Why, we may wonder, did a great dramatist like Chikamatsu, who had already written successful plays for actors, choose this unlikely form, and why did the Japanese public, for at least a century, find the puppet theatre more enjoyable than any other? The answer may be found in the fact that although in Europe the attempt has been to make puppets seem as lifelike as possible, in Japan actors to this day imitate the movements of puppets. It was only by turning its back on realism, as the Nō before it had also done, that the puppet theatre could achieve its high dramatic purpose. The best European marionettes are almost human. This means that the more proficient the operators get the less point there is in having marionettes, except as a pure exercise in manual