A group of five American university students are learning the art of traditional Japanese puppetry in this west Japan city, as part of a summer program revived for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The students have been practicing daily at the Tonda puppet hall in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, ahead of a July 30 regular summer show at the hall featuring local “Tonda Ningyo” puppetry.
Tonda Ningyo dates to the Edo period (1603-1867), when a troupe traveling from Awa (present-day Tokushima Prefecture) is said to have left puppets behind to cover their expenses, and local theater fans began practicing puppetry using the dolls. The art has since been passed down in the Tondacho district of Nagahama.
The local Tonda Puppet Troupe, which has kept the tradition alive, performed in the United States in 1994, and a university student who connected with the group came to Japan that December. And so began the training program.
Source : Mainichi