Word: bunraku
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...People talk about how strange I am," says the man who dances onstage like a Bunraku puppet leading an aerobics class and ended his last series of Talking Heads concerts wearing a huge white suit cut like a tailored tennis court. "Of course, being inside myself, not having the perspective, I don't think I'm odd at all. I can see that what I'm doing is not exactly what everyone else is doing, but I don't think of it as strange...
...kind of Japanese equivalent of American country and western. Traditional Japanese music, marked by delicate use of microtones, refined textures and free rhythm, was downgraded during the drive toward Westernization. But it remains popular, especially with older people and in the provinces, and is preserved in the Noh, Bunraku and Kabuki theaters. "We never had a national traditional music," says Toyama. "It was strictly apportioned by classes: the courts, the samurai, the merchants each had their own. But everyone can participate in the Western system." Although some composers like Toru Takemitsu have lately attempted to synthesize traditional music with Western...
...evolved, with men known as onna-gata performing the female roles, Kabuki became more explicitly theatrical, drawing on the earlier dramatic conventions of serious Noh theater, comic Kyogen plays, and stories from the Bunraku puppet theater. Parts were passed down the generations as leading theatrical families established themselves. Today, when a Kabuki actor reaches a sufficient level of artistry, he is rewarded with the name of a distinguished ancestor. Leading Kabuki artists like Tamasaburo, 32, a brilliant onnagata, may achieve the popularity of rock stars. One of the most effective works in the tour repertory is Narukami (The Thunder...