or less altered, in Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, Tunis, Tripoli,
and Morocco. It is recorded that in 1557 in Cairo a puppet play was
instrumental in stirring up a revolt and had to be prohibited. In
Arabia the shadows are decidedly debased in character, crude, and
wholly inartistic. In Tunis the performances are said to be mere
conglomerations of obscene incidents. Guy de Maupassant writes in his
_Vie Errante_: “We must not forget that it was only a very few years
ago that the performances of Caragoussa, a kind of obscene Punch and
Judy, were forbidden. Children looked on with their large black eyes,
some ignorant, others corrupt, laughing and applauding the improbable
and vile exploits which are impossible to narrate.” In 1842, however, a
traveller in Algiers witnessed a shadow play presenting incidents from
the _Arabian Nights’ Tales_, in which Karagheuz was a less rude buffoon
than usual. At the end of the play there appeared upon the screen the
illumined inscription: “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his
Prophet.”
* * * * *
In China the art of the shadow play has long, long ago attained a
degree of perfection as high if not surpassing that of any other
country. The Chinese have quaintly designed marionettes, but in the
magical beauty of their shadows they are without peers. It is only
within the last few decades, in fact, that the artists of Paris with
the shadow plays at the Chat Noir have succeeded in at all approaching
their skill and inspiration.
[Illustration: CHINESE SHADOW-PLAY FIGURES: COLLECTED BY B. LAUFER IN
PEKIN, 1901
[American Museum of Natural History, New York]]
According to legend one might infer, although scholars deem it
doubtful, that the origin of puppets in the wide dominions of bygone
Emperors, Celestial Ones, dates back to the earliest periods of a
remarkably ancient culture. One story relates that a thousand years
B.C. shadows had grown so popular and famous that King Muh commanded
a famous showman named Yen Sze to come into his palace and amuse him,
his wives and concubines. Yen Sze, thus honored, bestirred himself
to operate the figures in an animated manner and proceeded to make
his little puppets cast admiring glances at the ladies of the Court.
The King became jealously enraged and ordered Yen’s head chopped off.
Poor Yen Sze,--he barely escaped his horrible fate by tearing up his
little figures and proving them harmless creatures of leather, glue and
varnish. Another fable tells us that in the year 262 B.C. an Emperor of
the Han dynasty was being besieged in the City of Ping in the Province
of Schensi by the warrior-wife of Mao-Tun, named O. Now the Emperor’s
adviser, being full of cunning, and having heard of the jealous
disposition of the warlike lady O, devised a scheme for ingeniously
ridding the Emperor of his enemies. He placed upon the walls of the
beleaguered city a gorgeously dressed female puppet and by means of
hidden strings made her dance alluringly upon the ramparts. Lady O,
deceived by the lifelike imitation and fearing, should the city fall,
that her husband, Mao-Tun, might fall in love with this seductive
dancer, raised the siege and withdrew her armies from the Emperor’s
City of Ping in the Province of Schensi. So wonderful, so helpful were
the puppets of China in 262 B.C.!
In more modern days there are several sorts of Chinese marionettes. In
any open place one might come upon the simple, peripatetic showman with
a gathering of little bald-headed children around him, (hence, they
say, the name Kwo or Mr. Kwo, which means Baldhead). Stepping upon a
small platform the puppeteer dons a sort of sheath of blue cotton, like
a big bag, tight at the ankles and full higher up. He then places his
box on his shoulders with its open stage to the audience. His head is
enclosed behind this stage and his hands are thrust into the dresses of
the dolls and manipulate them, a finger for each arm, and for the head.
The dialogue is rough, realistic humor. When the act is over he places
the puppets and sheath in his box and strolls on with the complete
outfit under his arm.
In the large stationary marionette theatres a very different state of
affairs exists. Here with expensive and elaborate scenery the puppets
are capable of presenting highly spectacular faeries in the manner of
the later Italian and French fantoccini. The plot is generally the
old one of an enchanted princess guarded by a dragon and rescued
by a prince; their marriage ceremony furnishes the occasion for the
spectacular display. Some dramas of a romantic or historic nature were
composed especially for performances at the court of the Emperor.
Sir Lytton Putney, first British Ambassador to China, has described
the reception accorded him upon his arrival, one event of which was
a marionette play. The chief personage in this piece was a little
comedian whose antics delighted the court. The marionettes belonged to
the Emperor himself, and the very clever manager of the show was a high
official in the palace.
[Illustration: CHINESE SHADOW-PLAY FIGURES: COLLECTED BY B. LAUFER IN
PEKIN, 1901
Entrance to a house; water-wheel and gate to the lower wheel; gate
leading to one of the Purgatories
[American Museum of Natural History, New York]]
It is the Chinese shadows, however, which are most famous and most
amazing for their range of subject and variety of appeal. The figures
are of translucent hide, stained with great delicacy. The colors glow
like jewels when the light shines through them, and the combination
of these colors is amazingly beautiful. The repertoire includes
anything and everything in the world of the seen and of the unseen;
street comedies, happenings of everyday life, heroic legend, fables,
historic drama, religious and mystical revelations with all the ghostly
fantasy bred of Taoist teachings (metamorphoses and visions of demons
marvellously produced!). According to the account of Rehm in his
extensive work _Das Buch der Marionetten_, the beauty and power of
these fascinating illusions carry the spectator away into realms of
make-believe. He has given several enthusiastic descriptions of the
productions. The following is one of them:
“The story is that of a son, sick with longing, who implores the Ruler
of the Shadow-world to show him the spirit of his departed mother. One
sees a landscape bathed in the magic atmosphere of twilight. In the
background there rises a pagoda whose shimmering reflection is mirrored
in the calm lake. All is silence and expectancy. The son appears; he
makes his respectful obeisance before the hallowed spot and brings his
offering. The smoke of the incense rises in small clouds. Suddenly the
silver tones of the wonderful Chinese zither are heard and accompanied
by its strains the transformation takes place. The pagoda vanishes,
luminous circles of color appear out of which the mother emerges. She
speaks to her son, who is trembling with awe; she offers him glimpses
of a hidden world, comforts and strengthens him. One hears her sigh,
recognizes her perturbation by the rising and falling of her breast and
the whole expression of her countenance. The beholders are completely
under the sway of the ghostly apparition. In the end everything resumes
its former aspect, the peace of the night envelops the landscape
resting under the silver moonlight. Swans appear upon the lake bathing
their white plumage in the cool waters and with this poetic impression
the dream-peace is concluded.”
* * * * *
In Japanese literature, according to Mr. Henri Joly, one finds the
antiquity of the puppet show traced back into the depths of ages. Thus
the story runs: Hiriuk was a very ugly child, so his parents cast
him adrift in a boat. The boat floated away and was finally stranded
on the shore of Nishinomiya where the boy lived and died. After his
death, however, his restless spirit caused storms to rise and the
fishermen lost their livelihood until a man, Dokun, arrived who built
a temple to the Gods, whereupon the sea became smooth and the fish
plentiful. After Dokun’s death, the inhabitants neglected the temple.
Again gales arose and the fish disappeared. Then came another man
named Hiakudaiyu and made a doll and brought it to the temple. Then
hiding himself he displayed it and called: “I am Dokun, I have come
to greet you.” Whereupon the sea again became calm and fish again
returned. The emperor hearing of it summoned Hiakudaiyu to perform with
his show at court, and after witnessing it he exclaimed: “As Japan is
God’s country, we must, before anything else, entertain the Gods. Let
an office be created!” Hiakudaiyu was officially appointed to travel
from shrine to shrine about the land carrying the box which contained
his puppets. After his death others continued the art. Another
writer claims that Dokun was a Shinto priest, but it matters little.
[Illustration: OLD JAPANESE PUPPET HEADS
From a collection in the Brooklyn Institute Museum
[Founded by Mr. Stewart Culin in Kyoto, 1912]]
Japan has developed a marionette tradition altogether and amazingly
unique. Indeed so powerful a factor has it been that living actors in
the classic drama have accepted the conventions of the puppet stage and
are trained to the gesture and manner of the ancient marionette. This
does not apply, of course, to the innumerable strolling booths of
the Chinese _linen bag_ variety, but rather to the renowned and long
established stationary theatres for puppets, theatres with exclusive
boxes for the select and well-to-do of the audience and ample seating
capacity for the common people who visit the show in great numbers.
The dolls are not quite half as tall as a man; they are very
realistically conceived and the mimicry of nature is carried into
the minutest details. Mr. Joly has published some tracings of parts
of these Japanese puppets which indicate how elaborate the inner
mechanism must be; a hand in which each joint of each finger is
articulated, a head in which the eyes move from side to side. Indeed,
these marionettes frequently raise their eyebrows to express scorn
or surprise. The costumes are of rich silk and brocade, profusely
embroidered, often jeweled and always designed with special thought for
their decorative effect. Nay more, when a gown is new or particularly
handsome a boy comes deliberately out and places a lantern directly in
front of the doll so that no elegant detail shall be overlooked by the
audience. The puppets are, necessarily, very costly and they represent
altogether quite a large amount of capital for which the theatres are
often specially taxed.
The stages are quite large. The puppets are fastened by means of rods
to their stands (all but the spirits and magic figures, which are
worked with wires from above and float through the air). The most
curious feature in the Japanese show is the manner of manipulating.
The operators work on the stage in full view of the audience with the
puppets placed in front of them. They speak no word and are frequently
assisted by similarly mute scholars. These, to make themselves less
conspicuous, often wear black-hooded robes; but the expert and favorite
manipulators themselves are generally very gayly attired and their
entrances are not infrequently greeted with applause. Often there are
more persons working the puppets than there are puppets to be seen on
the stage.
The words of the drama are read by the _Gidayu_ or chanter, arrayed in
a splendid ceremonial costume and sitting respectfully on a platform
to the left of the stage behind a low stand upon which there rests a
copy of the text. He chants loudly and musically, varying according
to the nature of the account and of the characters. The chanters
are artists of high standing, in fact somewhere in the seventeenth
century they had already established a unique form of elocution. The
reading is generally accompanied by the strains of the samisen, a
three-stringed instrument, played by an artist who sits on the platform
next to the chanter. Sometimes besides the principal Gidayu there are
others who chant as a sort of chorus. In some performances there are
as many as thirty-three Gidayus, twenty-nine samisen players, some
forty manipulators and several cleaners of lamps and stage hands.
The chanter, after an exciting passage, may take a sip of tea or
expectorate into a little bamboo cuspidor, the musicians may emphasize
important lines by warning notes, the operators may jog about; Japanese
audiences are accustomed to these incidental happenings and accept them
with undisturbed equanimity. To Occidental witnesses they are likely to
seem distractions.
There are several types of classic drama in Japan, one of which is
the _Joruri_, or epical play originally composed expressly for the
marionette stage. The name is derived from a drama written by a clever
and beautiful court lady of Yeddo (1607–1688). It was called _The Story
of The Lady Joruri_ and being tremendously popular was followed by
many similar plays. It was later set to samisen music and during the
Eiroken period a woman singer gave performances of Joruri with puppets
in Kyoto. She was so successful that she was commanded to play before
noble families, finally even before the Emperor himself.
In these epic dramas there are long, poetic passages as well as
narrative parts. Early in the seventeenth century Takemoto Gidayu,
noted samisen player and puppet showman, invented a more brilliant
presentation of puppet shows to the accompaniment of Joruri recitation
and samisen music. His shows were popular with the nobility, the
populace and the Samurai (who enjoyed the warlike elements in them) and
he, too, was summoned to perform at the palace of the Emperor. In 1685
he established a stationary marionette theatre in Osaka called Takemoto
Za. For this theatre some of Japan’s best classic dramas were written.
One playwright, Chikamatsu Monzayemon, the Shakespeare of Japan,
together with his pupils, wrote about one hundred pieces for these
puppets. In 1703 a rival theatre was founded in Osaka by a pupil of
Gidayu. It was called Toyotake Za and it also had its able dramatists
and enthusiastic following. The two theatres were at their zenith early
in the eighteenth century; Izuma and Sosuki wrote for them. A few of
their plays were in a realistic vein, such as, _The Woman’s Harakari
at Long Street_, or more frequently they were of a heroic temper, _The
Battle of Kokusenya_, or _The Loyalty of the Five Heroes_, _The Revenge
of the Soga Brothers_, and often they were such romantic affairs as the
hopeless passion of two young lovers with the familiar ending of their
double suicide called _shinju_.
[Illustration: JAPANESE PRINT (Hokusai)
Representing the famous actor, Mizuki Tatsunosuke, manipulating a
puppet on a go board]
Later in the eighteenth century the centre for puppet performances was
transferred to Yeddo and flourished there for half a century in two
large theatres called Hizen Za and Take Za. There were two smaller
theatres, also in Kyoto. At present puppet plays are occasionally
given in Tokyo at Asakusa Park. There are two such theatres also in
Osaka with clever chanters and skilful puppeteers which are among the
greatest attractions of the city. In the land of the cherry blossom,
however, as elsewhere in this modern world, the cinema has, for a while
at least, outrivaled the ancient puppet play in the affection of the
people and, according to Osataro Miyamori, deprived them of a great
part of their audiences.
But who shall belittle the remarkable achievements of the Japanese
marionette theatre? All in all there have been as many as two hundred
epic poets writing for the puppets and over a thousand dramas have been
composed for them. Moreover, in feudal Japan, where higher education
was confined to the priests and to the Samurai, the Gidayu chanters
were important educators of the masses who derived their conceptions of
patriotism, loyalty and ethics from the impeccable sentiments of the
heroic epic dramas.
_Puppets of Italy and Southern Europe_
“Into whatever country we follow the footprints of the
numerous, motley family of puppets, we find that however exotic
their habits may be on their first arrival in the land they
speedily become reflexes of the peculiar genius, tastes and
characteristics of its people. Thus in Italy, the land of song
and dance, of strict theatrical censorships and of despotic
governments, we find the burattini dealing in sharp but
polished jests at the expense of the rulers, excelling in the
ballet and performing Rossini’s operas without curtailment or
suppression, with an orchestra of five or six instruments and
singers behind the scenes. The Spanish titere couches his lance
and rides forth to meet the Moor and rescue captive maidens,
marches with Cortez to the conquest of Montezuma’s capital or
enacts with more or less decorum moving incidents from Holy
Writ. In the jokken and puppen of Germany one recognizes the
metaphysical and fantastical tendencies of that country, its
quaint superstitions, domestic sprites and enchanted bullets.
And in France, where puppet shows were early cherished and
encouraged by the aristocracy as well as by the people, we need
not wonder to find them elegant, witty and frivolous, modelling
themselves upon their patrons.”
_Eclectic Magazine_ (1854).
Every country of Europe has had marionettes of one type or another
persisting from very early stages through centuries of national
vicissitudes. Italy, however, may be considered the pioneer, the
forerunner of them all. It was wandering Italian showmen who carried
their _castelli dei burattini_ into England, Germany, Spain and France,
and these countries seem to have adopted puppet conventions, devices
and dialogues long established by the Italians, gradually adapting them
to their own tastes. The Italians have always displayed great ingenuity
and perseverance in developing and elaborating their marionettes;
indeed, this may be both cause and result of the perpetual joy they
appear to derive from them.
There are numerous records in early Italian history of religious images
in the cathedrals and monasteries, marvellous Crucifixes, figures of
the Madonna and of the saints that could turn their eyes, nod their
heads or move their limbs. These were the solemn forebears of the
Italian fantoccini! Moreover very early it became customary for special
occasions to set up elaborate stages in the naves and chapels of the
churches upon which were enacted episodes from the Bible or from the
lives of the martyrs. The performers were large or small figures carved
and painted with rare skill and devotion, sometimes elaborately dressed
and bejeweled and frequently moved by complicated mechanism. It was not
unusual, in the presentation of sacred plays, to utilize both puppets
and human actors together.
Vasari in his Life of _Il Cecca_ tells us that, “Among others, four
most solemn public spectacles took place almost every year, one
for each quarter of the city with the exception of S. Giovanni for
the festival of which a most solemn procession was held, as will
be told. S. Maria Novella kept the feast of Ignazio, S. Croce that
of S. Bartholomew called S. Baccio, S. Spirito that of the Holy
Spirit and the Carmine those of the Ascension of Our Lord and the
Assumption of Our Lady.” Of the latter he continues, “The festival
of the Ascension, then, in the church of the Carmine, was certainly
most beautiful, seeing that Christ was raised from the mount, which
was very well contrived in woodwork, on a cloud about and amidst
which were innumerable angels, and was borne upwards into a Heaven
so admirably constructed as to be really marvellous, leaving the
Apostles on the mount.” We may read in great detail of the impressive
_Paradiso_, an arrangement of vast wheels moving in ten circles to
represent the ten Heavens. These circles glittered with innumerable
lights arranged in small suspended lamps which represented stars.
From this Heaven or Paradiso there proceeded by means of two strong
ropes, pulleys and counterweights of lead, a platform which held two
angels bound firmly by the girdle to iron stakes. These in due time
descend to the rood-screen and announce to the Savior that He is to
ascend into Heaven. “The whole apparatus,” continues the historian,
“was covered with a large quantity of well-prepared wool and this gave
the appearance of clouds amidst which were seen numberless cherubim,
seraphim and other angels clothed in various colors.” The machines
and inventions were said to have been Cecca’s, although Filippo
Brunelleschi had made similar things long before.
[Illustration: A WOODEN ITALIAN PUPPET, QUITE OLD
[Property of Mr. Tony Sarg]]
“It has been pointed out,” writes E. K. Chambers in the second volume
of his _Mediaeval Drama_, “that the use of puppets to provide a figured
representation of the mystery of the nativity seems to have preceded
the use for the same purpose of living and speaking persons; and
furthermore that the puppet show in the form of the Christmas Crib has
outlived the drama founded upon it and is still in use in all Catholic
countries.” Ferrigni describes a cathedral near Naples where this
ancient custom is still continued, the church being quite transformed
for the occasion, its walls hidden by scenery and an imitation hill
constructed at the top of which stood the Presepio. Moving figures
travelled up the hill toward the manger of Bethlehem, which was
illumined by a great light. I have heard such spectacles described by
travelers with much enthusiasm and not a little awe. Imagine the deep
impression, the reverent delight, produced among the devout worshippers
in mediaeval times!
It must be admitted that many prelates condemned the use of these
religious fantoccini as smacking sinfully of idolatry. Abbot Hughes of
Cluny denounced them in 1086, Pope Innocent in 1210 and others also,
from time to time. But canons were never able to quite eradicate the
cherished custom, and the little figures always reappeared inside the
churches and in adjacent cloisters and cemeteries for spectacles,
mysteries and masks. The decree of the Council of Trent, however, was
instrumental in forcing most of them out of the churches, so that in
the sixteenth century they were generally to be found roaming about the
countryside and giving performances in the marketplaces and at fairs.
[Illustration: MEDIAEVAL MARIONETTES
[From an illustration in a twelfth-century manuscript in the
Strassbourg library]]