• Bunraku: 曽根崎心中 (Love Suicide at Sonezaki), 9/8/23 (Fri)
• Bunraku: 菅原伝授手習鑑 (Sugawara and the Secrets of Calligraphy), Acts III-V, 9/16/23 (Sat)

This is being billed as the last Bunraku puppet drama in Tokyo’s current money-losing National Theater, which will shut down for reconstruction at the end of next month. The government plans to replace the aging theater, built in the mid 1960s as a showcase for Kabuki, Bunraku and other Japanese traditional performing arts, with a large hotel/retail/theater complex, a PFI project reportedly due to cost some ¥80 billion. However, the plan hit a big speed bump last month when it failed for a second time to attract a single bidder, i.e., private developers see no commercial prospects for a building of this type in that location. Kabuki has consistently failed to draw audiences in recent years, while Bunraku, the theater’s one bright spot, only visits from its Osaka base for 2-3 weeks each quarter, which is insufficient to sustain the property financially. The government has not explained why it thinks that rebuilding the theater in this location will attract Kabuki audiences who aren’t showing up now, and as the project is supposed to take an inordinate 6-7 years to complete, the big question for Bunraku, which will be relegated in the interim to a distant corner of the city, is whether there will be any fans left at that point. This is less death than suicide. Continue reading →