Ichinotani Moritoshi Atsumori and Ichinotani Atsumori: a sequence of two cart puppet plays derived from the Japanese epic Tales of the Heike. Performed by the Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo The Koryu Nishikawa Troupe (cart puppetry company) of Japan. Online screening followed by a Q&A with Master Puppeteer Nishikawa-san, in conversation with Claudia Orenstein (Hunter College), Elizabeth Oyler (University of Pittsburgh), and John Bell (Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, University of Connecticut). Hosted by the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. Date TBA.
Derived from the Japanese epic The Tales of the Heike, Ichinotani Futaba Gunki depicts the Taira (Heike) clan’s prosperity and downfall after the battle with the Genji (Minamoto) clan. Because Ichinotani Futaba Gunki is a long story, the entire story is not usually performed. Instead, the most famous or popular events in the story are performed in a show.
Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo The Koryu Nishikawa Troupe, a Japanese cart puppet company in Tokyo with 160 years of history, plays the following two sequences.
Moritoshi’s Report / Atsumori’s Departure (Ichinotani Moritoshi Atsumori
Heike’s warrior Moritoshi realizes that the Heike clan is losing. He rushes to inform Taira no Atsumori of the situation and urges him to escape. However, Atsumori is determined to go to the battle even though he knows there’s no chance for him to survive. Sonoo, his newly married wife, begs him to remain at home, but her pleas are in vain.
Atsumori’s Death (Ichinotani Atsumori
Kumagai Naozane, one of the famous figures of the Genji, challenges Atsumori and overpowers him. At the last moment, Kumagai hesitates to kill him, realizing that Atsumori is as young as his own son. However, other Genji warriors are approaching, and there is no way for Atsumori to survive. Prepared to die, Atsumori tells Kumagai to take his life. This is one of the best-known scenes from the Tales of the Heike
In terms of artistic expression, the first play is performed in a traditional way. The second is performed with a biwa (wooden lute) player, which the troupe explored a few decades ago.
An introduction to Hachioji kuruma ningyo, with excerpts from “Farewell from Moriyoshi to His Wife” (The Battle at Ichinotani) and “Death of Atsumori” (The Tale of the Heike). Presented by the Koryu Nishikawa Troupe:
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Claudia Orenstein, Theatre Professor at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, has spent nearly two decades researching and writing on contemporary and traditional puppetry in the US and Asia. Recent publications include the co-edited volumes Women and Puppetry: Critical and Historical Investigations with Alissa Mello and Cariad Astles and The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance with Dassia Posner and John Bell. She was dramaturg for Tom Lee and kuruma ningyō master Nishikawa Koryū V’s Shank’s Mare and for Stephen Earnhart’s multimedia production Wind Up Bird Chronicle. She is a Board Member of UNIMA-USA and Associate Editor of Asian Theatre Journal. Current book projects are Reading the Puppet Stage: Essays on the Dramaturgy of Performing Objects and the two-volume co-edited anthology Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Object,s with co-editor Tim Cusack. She is the recipient of a 2021-22 Fulbright Research Fellowship for research on ritual puppetry in Japan and will be the Editor of the new, online, free access journal devoted to puppetry, masks, and related arts, Puppetry International Research, published by The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in collaboration with UNIMA-USA.
Elizabeth Oyler is Associate Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on the representation of historical and cultural memory in literature and performing arts from Japan’s medieval period, particularly the fifteenth century. She is the author of Swords, Oaths and Prophetic Visions: Authoring Warrior Rule in Medieval Japan and co-editor, with Michael G. Watson, of Like Clouds or Mists: Studies and Translations of Noh Plays of the Genpei War, as well as articles on medieval narrative and performance traditions. A second co-edited (with Katherine Saltzman-Li) volume, Cultural Imprints: War and Memory in the Samurai Age, is forthcoming from Cornell East Asia Series (Feb. 2022). She is working on a book-length study of noh drama, specifically how the staging of a set of plays about the Genpei War by early playwrights simultaneously codify and undermine spaces of the poetic and social landscapes of the early fifteenth-century.
The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry (BIMP) is one of America’s hidden treasures—a superb collection of over 3,500 puppets from all over the world; an archive of books, manuscripts, posters, drawings, audio-visual materials and photographs all covering the history of puppetry. It is also the new home of the Puppeteers of America’s Audio-Visual Collection: the largest collection of videotapes, films, and other media about puppetry in the United States. The Ballard Institute curates and produces exhibitions of puppetry, both at the Ballard Museum and for touring across the United States. The Institute also offers workshops, museum tours, artists’ forums, film showings, performances, and other events and programs that promote the art of puppetry as a twenty-first-century art form with deep historic and global roots.
This screening and Q&A is part of the World Epics in Puppet Theater: India, Iran, Japan, Italy project, a Columbia University Humanities War & Peace Initiative that aims to foster “the study of war and peace from the perspective of scholars in the Humanities, in conversation with colleagues from around Columbia and the world […] with an ultimate goal of perpetuating a more peaceful world.” The event is co-sponsored by the Humanities War and Peace Initiative, through the Division of Humanities in the Arts & Sciences at Columbia University; the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, Columbia University; the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, University of Connecticut; the Puppet Arts Program, Department of Dramatic Arts, University of Connecticut; the University of Pittsburgh; and UNIMA-USA.
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