are traditional Japanese mechanized

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...

s or

automata An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and Mor ...

, made from the 17th century to the 19th century. The dolls' gestures provided a form of entertainment. The word has also come to mean "mechanisms" or "trick" in Japanese. It is used to describe any device that evokes a sense of awe through concealment of its inner workings. The name is thought to come from the Japanese verb , which means "to pull, stretch, and move a thread". It is alternatively written in

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...

as , , , , and archaically as .

History

One of the earliest recorded references in Japan to similar automata devices is found in the , which references a mechanism known as a

south-pointing chariot The south-pointing chariot (or carriage) was an ancient Chinese two-wheeled vehicle that carried a movable pointer to indicate the south, no matter how the chariot turned. Usually, the pointer took the form of a doll or figure with an outstretc ...

appearing during the reign of

Empress Kōgyoku , also known as , was the 35th and 37th monarch of Japan,Kunaichō 斉明天皇 (37)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Kōgyoku's reign spanned the years from 642 to 645. Her reign as Saimei encompassed 655 to 661. In other ...

, in 658 CE. were further developed in Japan after the introduction of European clock-making technology sometime in the early 17th century, during the

Sengoku period The was a period in Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the feudal system of Japan under the Ashikaga shogunate. Variou ...

. The gears and cams used in clock-making were used to create moving dolls. The country embraced the mechanized puppet performance as a form of entertainment, and it became popular during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, which was considered the golden age of construction and use. were initially only known to upper-class Japanese, such as and , as the only members of society wealthy enough to afford them. However, gained widespread popularity through their use as part of floats during street festivals, such as the Toshogu Matsuri in

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most p ...

. In 1662, clockmaker Takeda Omi completed the first , designed for stage performances, in the

Dōtonbori is one of the principal tourist destinations in Osaka, Japan, running along the Dōtonbori canal from Dōtonboribashi Bridge to Nipponbashi Bridge in the Namba district of the city's Chuo ward. Historically a theater district, it is now a popula ...

neighborhood of

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

. He then built several of these large puppets for theatrical exhibitions, and the theatre was passed down through several generations of his family. In the 19th century, Tanaka Hisashige, the founder of

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems ...

, gained a reputation by making technically sophisticated puppets. His masterpieces are and doll (letter-writing doll). In the case of , using mechanical power, a puppet shoots a target with a bow and arrow, and in the case of , a puppet a dips a brush into ink and writes characters on paper. File:弓曳き童子正面.jpg, made by Tanaka Hisashige. File:文字書き人形.jpg, made by Tanaka Hisashige. According to Kirsty Boyle, a student of one of the last puppet masters in Japan, the tradition focuses on the art of concealing technology with the belief that it would evoke feelings and emotions more effectively. It is also noted that, although the puppet resembles the human figure, it has a form of decisive movement that features rapid shifts that cannot be captured by the naked eye.

Types

There are three main types of . were life-sized dolls designed for public performances such as

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

s. were small and used in homes. Most of them were set on a table and performed a dance or beat drums, but some were designed to serve tea or

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and ind ...

. These were significantly expensive, and usually owned by a or other high-status person. were large mechanical dolls used in religious festivals, where the puppets were used to perform reenactments of traditional

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

s and

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

s. There were also more inexpensive toys based on traditional . The tin toys that for a period were frequently made in Japan and sold for export were sometimes modeled after . Some scholars note that the gestures and movements of the have influenced Noh,

kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought ...

and theatre.

The most common example today of a mechanism is a tea-serving robot, which starts moving forward when a cup of tea is placed on the plate in its hands. This , also known as , was used in a situation when a host wanted to treat a guest in a recreational way. It moves in a straight line for a set distance, moving its feet as if walking, and then bows its head. The doll stops when the cup is removed. When it is replaced, the robot raises its head, turns around and returns to where it came from. It is typically powered by a wound spring made of whalebone, and the actions are controlled by a set of cams and levers.

Gallery

File:Tokugawaendashizoroe5.JPG, of the in

File:Tokugawaendashizoroe6.JPG, File:Tokugawaendashizoroe8.JPG, File:Shimohanda festival1.jpg, Festival in Handa

References

External links

Karakuri.info
English information site
Karakuri puppets in Takayama Matsuri Festival
NHK (video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Karakuri ningyo Puppets Science and technology during the Edo period Performing arts in Japan Japanese dolls Japanese inventions Historical robots Robots of Japan 17th-century robots Entertainment robots Culture articles needing translation from Japanese Wikipedia

History

Types

Gallery

See also

References

External links