are traditional

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese 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. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

s or

automata An automaton (; : 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. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

, 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 logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

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 outstretch ...

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. Both her reigns were within the Asuka period. Kōgyoku's reign spanned the years from 642 to 645. Her r ...

, 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 the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. 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 , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, 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 of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

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

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

. 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 is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

, 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 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 to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

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, , or saki, 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 indeed any East Asi ...

. 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 genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

s and

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

s. There were also more inexpensive toys based on traditional . The

tin toy A tin toy, or tin lithograph toy, is a mechanical toy made out of tinplate and colorfully painted by chromolithography to resemble primarily a character or vehicle. History Tinplate was used in the manufacture of toys beginning in the mid-19th ...

s 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 Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...

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 , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

(video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Karakuri ningyo 17th-century robots Culture articles needing translation from Japanese Wikipedia Entertainment robots Historical robots Japanese dolls Japanese inventions Technology in Medieval Japan Performing arts in Japan Puppets Robots of Japan Science and technology during the Edo period

History

Types

Gallery

See also

References

External links