National Bunraku Theatre, Puppetry theater in Nipponbashi, Japan
The National Bunraku Theatre is a steel-frame reinforced concrete building of two basement and five above-ground floors in Nipponbashi, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and opened in 1984. Its facade is clad in a grid of small grey tiles, with a projecting box section carrying two round blue-and-white medallions and raised metal characters reading 国立文楽劇場. Tall white vertical fins at street level support the upper mass. Inside are a main hall of 753 seats and a 159-seat small hall.
Bunraku was performed at the Shochiku-run Bunraku-za in Osaka until 1963, when the Bunraku Association took over with subsidies from the national government, Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City. Calls for a national bunraku theatre led to a preparatory committee in 1977 and construction on the former site of Takatsu Elementary School. The National Bunraku Theatre opened in March 1984 as Japan's fourth national theatre, designed by Kisho Kurokawa.
Bunraku is inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The theatre also trains future chanters (tayū), shamisen players and puppeteers, and four times a year the Bunraku Kyōkai performers' association stages twenty-two-day runs in January, April, July/August and November.
The theatre stands at 1-12-10 Nipponbashi, Chuo Ward, one minute on foot from Osaka Metro Nipponbashi Station and Kintetsu Nipponbashi Station. The large hall seats 753, or 731 when the degatari narrator platform is installed and 677 with the hanamichi walkway. The small hall has 159 seats and hosts the Kamigata Engei Senshukai rakugo, manzai and rokyoku shows in odd-numbered months.
The main performance hall seats 753 people and is specifically designed for Bunraku productions. A smaller hall with 159 seats presents different types of entertainment and recorded performances.
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