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Columbia Receives Adachi Collection of the Japanese Puppet Theater Bunraku
(Columbia Receives Adachi Collection of the Japanese Puppet Theater Bunraku) Barbara Adachi has donated an extraordinary collection on the
Japanese puppet theater Bunraku to the C.V. Starr East Asian
Library at Columbia University. Bunraku, one of the world's
most highly developed forms of puppet theater, is a collaborative
effort of narrators, musicians, and puppeteers. The puppets are
nearly lifesize (two and one-half to almost five feet tall) and
weigh anywhere from ten to fifty pounds. Each is operated by three
puppeteers, except for those with minor roles. Mrs. Adachi, a
former columnist for two Tokyo newspapers, has lectured widely on
Japanese crafts and theatre, and has written several books,
including The Voices and Hands of Bunraku and
Backstage at Bunraku.
The materials in the collection cover the past thirty years of
Bunraku history and include more than twenty thousand photographs
of rehearsals, performances, backstage materials, and puppet
construction. The collection contains programs in English and
Japanese, texts of the plays performed, and audio and video
recordings. Amy Heinrich, director of Columbia's East Asian
Library, said that "We are very grateful to Barbara Adachi for
donating this unique collection of materials to Columbia. This is
an extremely important resource for scholarship on the traditional
puppet theater and its renascence in the postwar period. Our hope
is to take the collection and create a completely cross-referenced
database of holdings and to gradually digitize the photographs for
access via the Internet."
Ms. Adachi, who has 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
continues to this day. She has attended over four decades of
Bunraku and Kabuki performances, conducted over one-hundred
interviews of performers and craftsmen, and taken thousands of
photographs of both traditional Japanese theater and crafts. The
photographs, in both color and black-and-white, concentrate on
dress rehearsals (butaigeiko) and workshop techniques. Ms. Adachi
has toured with the troupe both in Japan and in the United States,
appearing with them for demonstrations, lectures, and television
performances. She is married to James Shogo Adachi, an attorney,
who maintains a law office in Tokyo.
Donald Keene, Columbia University Shincho Professor Emeritus of
East Asian Languages and Cultures, who wrote the forewords to Mrs.
Adachi's books on the Bunraku, noted that "No other
foreigner, and probably no other Japanese, possess the intimate
knowledge of what goes on before and behind the scenery. This
collection represents the years Mrs. Adachi spent watching Bunraku
performances, and her almost equally long years of gaining the
trust and friendship of the men and women who make up the
organization. Columbia is very fortunate to be the recipient of
such a remarkable and extensive collection, one that documents an
art that is a glory not only of Japan but of the entire
world."
The materials from the Adachi Collection are currently being
processed and will be available for viewing by the University
community in the near future.
Images from the Adachi
Collection
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