Bunraku
/bʊnˈrɑːkuː/noun
A traditional Japanese puppet theater featuring large puppets operated by visible puppeteers, accompanied by narrators and musicians.
Did you know?“Bunraku” is an abbreviated form of Bunrakuza, the name of an Osaka theater founded in the nineteenth century to honor the puppeteer Uemura Bunrakuken.
Etymological Timeline
Classical Japanese
Japanese
文楽
“The characters mean approximately “literature” or “letters” (文) and “pleasure” or “enjoyment” (楽).”
1751–1810
Japanese
植村文楽軒 (Uemura Bunrakuken)
“The name of the puppeteer and theater founder whose artistic name later became associated with the puppet tradition.”
1805
Japanese
文楽軒
“Uemura Bunrakuken established a puppet theater in Osaka, helping create the institutional name later shortened to Bunraku.”
1872
Japanese
文楽座 (Bunrakuza)
“A theater company founded in Osaka and named in honor of Bunrakuken; its name helped popularize “Bunraku” as the genre’s label.”
20th Century
English
bunraku
“English adopted the Japanese term for the traditional Japanese puppet-theater form.”