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| Collection Information | ||
| Date Range: |
1964-2003
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| Size: |
57 linear feet (ca. 3320 items) of papers,
13,571 slides, 7,571 photographic items including negatives, 71 audio and video
materials (with 139 preservation master copies and 139 CDs of the same materials), and 89 realia objects.
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| Alternate Format(s): |
Over 15,000 digital images from this collection are available with search functions by play titles, productions, performers, and other subject terms on the Barbara Curtis Adachi Bunraku Collection Website, C. V. Starr East Asian Library. |
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| Preferred Citation: |
Barbara Curtis Adachi Bunraku Collection. C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia
University.
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| Acquisition Information: |
This collection was a gift from Barbara Curtis Adachi in 2000.
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| Terms of Access: |
The collection is available for use by qualified readers by appointment in the Kress
Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room, C. V. Starr East Asian Library at
Columbia University. Collections maintained in off-site storage will be retrieved with
advance notification only; for further details, please consult the C. V. Starr East
Asian Library staff. For further information and to make an appointment, please call
(212) 854-4318.
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| Restrictions on Use or Access: |
Columbia University is providing access to the materials in the Library's collections
solely for noncommercial educational and research purposes. The unauthorized use,
including, but not limited to, publication of the materials without the prior written
permission of Columbia University is strictly prohibited. All inquiries regarding
permission to publish should be submitted in writing to the Director, C. V. Starr East
Asian Library, Columbia University. For additional guidance, see
Columbia University Libraries' publication policy.
In addition to permission from Columbia University, permission of the copyright owner
(if not Columbia University) and/or any holder of other rights (such as publicity and/or
privacy rights) may also be required for reproduction, publication, distributions, and
other uses. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of any item and
securing any necessary permissions rests with the persons desiring to publish the item.
Columbia University makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the materials or their
fitness for a particular purpose.
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| Location: |
Paper materials, photographs, CDs and realia objects are located
onsite at the C. V. Starr East Asian Library. Slides, negatives, original and
preservation masters of audio and video cassettes are maintained in off-site storage.
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| Contact Info: |
C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia
University Libraries
1140 Amsterdam Ave. |
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| Processing Information: |
This collection was processed by Maiko Ota Cagno, Bunraku Project Archivist, and Azusa
Tanaka, archivist assistant, C. V. Starr East Asian Library, in 2005-2007.
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| Finding Aid Preparation: |
Finding aid written by Maiko Ota Cagno for C. V.
Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities; machine-readable
finding aid created
by Columbia University Libraries Digital Program Division. Further enriched
Finding Tool for this collection with search capabilities by play titles, production
dates, performer names and other descriptors will be available in December 2007 with
the slide digitization project funded by the Freeman Foundation.
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| Finding Aid Date: |
2006-07-31 |
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| Identifier: |
(CStRLIN)-
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Historical and Biographical NoteIn November 2003, The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially recognized Bunraku, Japanese puppet theater, as a "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity." Bunraku, one of the world's most highly developed forms of puppet theater, is an unusually complex dramatic form, a collaborative effort between puppeteers, narrators, and musicians. The "actors" in the theater, the puppets themselves, are usually two-thirds lifesize (2.5 to almost 5 feet tall); the major figures in a drama are manipulated by three puppeteers who are fully visible to the audience, but usually hooded. The puppeteers do not speak; it is the narrators who recite all the spoken parts and the narratives, altering their voices to represent each of the characters as well as to provide the narration. The musicians accompany them on the three-stringed shamisen. Bunraku was first developed in the seventeenth century. Its popularity reached a peak in the eighteenth century. The growth of an urban population with enough leisure, literacy, and funds to enjoy theater provided the impetus and the audience for the puppet theater and for kabuki. Often the plays written for one of the two popular forms were adapted by the other. Many of the texts were written by major Edo-period (1603-1868) playwrights, including Japan's foremost playwright, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1868), in earlier times dubbed the "Shakespeare of Japan." Chikamatsu preferred to write for the puppet theater rather than for the kabuki theater since actors felt free to alter his words, and the puppets could not. In fact, reverence for the written word is demonstrated at every performance, as the daiyu or tayū (narrator) lifts the written text above his head in demonstration of its importance. But in spite of the importance of the text, in modern times, rarely are full-texts—complete plays—performed. Instead, a program is made up of scenes from different plays, to select the most moving or most exciting portions of a play, and to create a program with overall balance to display the skills of puppeteers, narrators, and shamisen players to best advantage. However, the popularity of Bunraku gradually diminished by the end of 1770s with the death of some of the best narrators, playwrights and puppeteers. During the Meiji-period (1868-1912) Bunraku flourished once again, but management problems of the troupe in the early twentieth century, the difficult war years in the 1940s, and the splitting the troupe into two groups over management policies in the 1950s, coincided with the loss of public interest. When a semi-governmental agency, Bunraku Kyōkai, was established in 1963 to oversee the troupe, Bunraku experienced a remarkable revival. Over recent decades, the audience has grown younger. Bunraku is once again a popular form of entertainment in Japan (and catching attention around the world), advertised in the subway and even featured on a metrocard in 2001, and performing to sold-out crowds. The troupe's home base in Ōsaka is the National Bunraku Theatre (opened in 1984), and the troupe appears regularly at the National Theatre in Tokyo. Barbara Curtis Adachi (1924-2004), who lived most of her life in Tokyo, witnessed her first Bunraku performance in 1935, at the age of eleven. Her extensive involvement with the troupe began in the 1960s and continued throughout the rest of her life. She attended over four decades of Bunraku and kabuki performances, conducted over one hundred interviews of performers and craftsmen, and took thousands of photographs of both traditional Japanese theater and crafts. Ms. Adachi toured with the National Bunraku Troupe both in Japan and in the United States, appearing with them for demonstrations, lectures, and television performances. Ms. Adachi, a former columnist for two Tokyo newspapers, lectured widely on Japanese crafts and theater, and wrote several books including The Voices and Hands of Bunraku (1978) and Backstage at Bunraku (1985). Scope and ContentThis collection contains slides, photographs with corresponding contact sheets and negatives, audio and video materials, performance-related printed materials, realia objects and personal papers. Visual, audio, video and printed materials, and realia objects are described at the item level with play titles, production dates, and performer names and other descriptors, if applicable. Personal papers are described at the folder level. 178 plays, 290 productions, and 183 performers of the National Bunraku Troupe are cited in this collection. Visual and printed materials for fifteen Living National Treasures of Japan in Bunraku are included in this collection. Listings of play titles, productions, performers, and subjects can be consulted in the following downloadable Excel spreadsheets: Play titles, Productions, Performers, and Subjects. Notes: All Japanese names are listed in order of family name and given name without a comma between, except when papers are arranged in alphabetical order by family names (e.g., Series 8.3, Correspondence). In such cases, a comma is supplied between the family name and the given name for both Japanese and English names. Variations of play titles for the same play have been standardized with the appropriate Library of Congress authority headings. If a play title is not listed in the Library of Congress authority headings files, monographs (see Bibliography) and performance programs are referred to for a main entry.Alternate Form AvailableOver 15,000 digital images from this collection are available with search functions by play titles, productions, performers, and other subject terms on the Barbara Curtis Adachi Bunraku Collection Website, C. V. Starr East Asian Library. Separated MaterialMaterials concerning other arts and crafts, including performing arts, of Japan from Barbara Curtis Adachi are processed separately in the Barbara Curtis Adachi Hands of Japan Collection, C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University. BibliographyAdachi, Barbara C. The Voices and Hands of Bunraku. Tokyo, New York: Kodansha International, c1978. Adachi, Barbara C. Backstage at Bunraku. New York: Weatherhill, 1985. Chikamatsu, Monzaemon. Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu. Trans. Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, [1961]. Chikamatsu, Monzaemon. Major Plays of Chikamatsu. Trans. Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961. Hironaga, Shūzaburō. The Bunraku Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Japan's Unique Puppet Theatre, with Synopses of All Popular Plays. Tokyo: Maison des Arts, c1976. Keene, Donald. Bunraku: The Art of the Japanese Puppet Theatre. Tokyo, Kodansha International, ltd.;[distributed by Japan Publications Trading Co., Rutland, Vt., 1965]. |
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