Yoro-no-gakuya – [Yokai | Tsukumogami]

Description

“Yoro-no-gakuya” – 夜楽屋, 夜の楽屋 – [ Yokai | Tsukumogami | Haunted Dolls ] – aka: “The Dressing Room after Midnight” “The Spirit of Puppets”

• About this yokai: Bunraku Puppets of characters from Kanadehon Chūshingura (47 ronin) Ko no Moronao (高師直) and Enya Hangan Tasakada (塩冶判官), it’s said that every night past midnight (3:AM) the dressing room would come to life & they’d battle it out just like in the play.Perhaps it was the heart and skill of the performers which brought them to life… The green room becomes a battlefield!!

• History & Early Appearances: “Yoro-no-gakuya” is a legend earliest described and depicted in “Ehon Hyakkumonogatari” by Takehara Shunsensai 1841- a late Edo period collection of strange stories & creatures. This one explains supernatural occurrences which supposedly went on in a theatrical dressing room (or rather, a storage room) where the puppets for “Ningyo Johruri” (Musical Bunraku Puppet Theatre) were kept. It was said that everynight after midnight, the puppets of Ko No Moronao and Hangan would come to life and fight just like in the play. The accompanying text on the following page in addition to the above story, notably, also contains a short poem composed by a puppet maker known as Dosai/Tosai? (土斎) (Sadly, it’s quite difficult to find much more information about him.) – Regardless, the included poem (Which seems to be commentary on making puppets) goes something a bit like as follows:

「捨てねども
家こそでくの坊主なれ
鬼も仏も
手づくねにして]

“Even I, a worthless monk cast out from my home, can mold Demons and Buddhas with my own hands.”

Image source: Ehon Hyakku Monogatari volume 5. 1841

• About the play: Ko no Moronao and Enya Hangan Tasakada are from Kanadehon Chushingura- one of Japan’s most popular Bunraku & Kabuki dramas. Today it’s best known in English as “The 47 Ronin.” It’s a dramatization of The Ako Vandetta which took place in January of 1701. An epic tale of honour and revenge about the 47 retainers who seek vengeance over the forced suicide of their lord. It’s considered one of Japan’s “Big 3 Vendetta’s” and has remained popular for over 275 years as of writing this!!  The story has been made & adapted into dozens of famous kabuki plays, movies and novels countless times, but the first and earliest theatrical version of the story was originally composed for Bunraku puppet theatre in Osaka in 1748! Of course, with that territory historical facts surrounding the original incident have become blurred with the fiction surrounding it and to make matters even more confusing, during the Edo period the shogunate had banned mention of contemporary events involving the samurai class! So, when the original Bunraku play came out in 1748 the actual events of the story had actually taken place only 47 years prior! To avoid censorship, the play’s authors placed the puppet show’s story in the distant past during the Genpei war (400 years earlier!) and changed the names of the characters to match historical figures mentioned in the Taiheki. The puppet’s new names were changed to be seemingly common aliases for those involved in the inciting Ako incident of which the events of the story is based. “Enya Hangan Tasakada” (塩冶判官) is believed to be an alias for (or at least inspired by) the real daimyo Asano Naganori. Likewise, the villain Ko no Moronao (高師直) is an alias for “Kira Yoshinaka.” The names change quite frequently through history & various adaptations (as well as the various mistranslations and misinterpretations found across various English translations over the years) but in the plot & their roles remain the same.

The plot of the “Kanadehon Chushingura” bunraku play goes a bit like this: “Enya Hangan’s wife was a renown beauty, which caught the lustful eye of the corrupt official Ko No Moronao, who began to spread slanderous rumors about the two. Hangan took it personally and attempted to kill Moronao using his Wakizashi (short blade) in the corridor of pines at Edo castle but failed to finish him. For attempting a homicide in his palace, the shogun ordered  Hangan  to commit seppuku the same day. Ko no Moronao went unpunished. which is unusual, as at the time both parties would normally either be sentenced to death or banished. The shogunate also confiscated Asano’s lands (the Akō Domain) and dismissed all of the samurai who had served him, demoting them to master-less rōnin & deporting their families elsewhere. The 47 retainers spent the next couple years laying low, pretending to live lives of drunken debauchery in order to  lure the shogunate into a false sense of security before finally taking bloody vengeance on Ko no Moronao in his home at night. They brought his head to Hangan’s grave as an offering before preparing to commit seppuku, satisfied that they have demonstrated their loyalty to their deceased lord The Asano clan’s families were eventually able to return to their homes.” 

At the time when the above Ehon Hyakkumonogatari illustration was drawn in 1841, these characters would have been immediately recognizable. I believe that in that the puppet on the bottom of Ehon Hyakku Monogatari print is intended to be Kira as he’s dressed in a uniform & crown. Which means that the puppet on top is probably Hangan. (Though his topknot seems to have come undone.) I’d also guess that the severed head below the two holding the Wakizashi (a short blade often used for seppuku) is probably supposed to be Hangan’s beautiful wife who Ko no Moronao was famously illustrated peeping on, which was essentially the catalyst for what began the events of the play. (No wonder she’s holding the short blade!) The 3 other hanging puppets are likely some of the ronin. You can tell because of their iconic black & white firemen’s jackets which they use as a disguise to ambush Hangan’s home. (see the portraits below.) I’d assume that the wooden water bucket over one of their heads is also a comedic reference or a way to clarify that it is them. Also, along the bottom of the illustration are platform geta! (also known as okobo or oiran geta) These type of geta would have also been worn by a lead puppeteer in action scenes to help him hold the puppet above the supporting actors!

Today, The graves of the 47 ronin can still be visited at ‘Sengaku-ji’ temple in Minato Japan!

[if you’re having trouble following this; I don’t blame ya, I’d personally recommend also checking out Linfamys video for a comprehensive (easy to understand) explanation on the differences between the play and the actual events! As well, the cultural digital libraries page is another excellent resource for information about both the initial incident and the accompanying bunraku & kabuki plays.]

[a portrait of Ko no Moronao]

[matching portrait of hagan both of these are likely by Utagawa Kuniyoshi] 

[portraits of all 47 ronin by Utagawa Yoshitora (1836-1880)]

[Night attack of the 47 Ronin by Kuniyoshi] – (incidentally a Yokai version of the play (also drawn by kuniyoshi) exists too, titled ‘The Monster Chushingura’ drawn in 1839, its quite amusing!)

• About the antiques: Bunraku puppets are typically made of wood and are very expressive in the way they move and the way actors handle them. The articulation is incredibly impressive for the time, with some puppets having articulated mouths, eyes, fingers, and even animated or transforming expressions operated via pulleys and levers at the back of the neck. They can be are quite large and often require two or three actors at once to move & manipulate them on stage! These actors typically dress in all black with hoods called kuroko covering their faces to tell the audience that puppeteers aren’t supposed to be acknowledged during the performance! (Incidentally, these costumes are quite literally the inspiration for the outfits for stereotypical ninjas you see in pop culture!)

[Three performers (two standing one kneeling) in black hooded robes (called kuroko.) holding a bunraku puppet, typically the leader controls the head, face & left arm, the other controls the right arm & helps guide exaggerated poses. The kneeling actor controls the legs – (Photo credit: Awajiningyo on facebook.) ]

[An elaborate Bunraku puppet of warrior/monk; Benkei, from the Awa wooden doll museum & theatre in tokushima prefecture]

• Tangential Musings and Observations: Since this story involves bunraku puppets specifically, I’d suppose that to worldwide audiences this yokai might feel a bit closer as to how ‘ventriloquist dummies’ are also frequently seen as a staple of horror here in the west- perhaps even more so as they are their own art-form. Overall the fear of puppets (or “pupaphobia”.) is caused by the uncanny valley effect. There’s something inherently creepy about something which is human shaped and acts like it but very obviously isn’t. As such, dolls, puppets, robots, and mannequins tend to become quite eerie the longer you look at them. Naturally, people in the olden days felt this too and as such, it’s a fairly common folk belief shared ‘round the world that dolls which are shaped like humans can become vessels for wayward souls. – Add a dash of onryo (“vengeful ghosts”) and tsukumogami (“haunted antiques”) into the mix and I suppose in a nutshell, you’d have this yokai!

Acting tends to come with its own superstitions. You may already be aware of the curse that follows any production of Macbeth. It’s said to be bad luck for any actor to even say “Macbeth” but this bad luck can be averted by spinning around three times and spitting over your left shoulder.  Productions of Yotsuya Kaidan, the kabuki play that birthed one of Japan’s San Dai Yuurei (Three Great Ghosts), are similarly said to be cursed and the best way to avoid misfortune being to have yourself purified at Oiwa’s temple in Tokyo. [Editor’s Note: In my theater class in high school we had a tradition of standing in a circle, holding hands with one arm crossed over the other (I forget if it was left over right or right over left) then all together stomping our feet and shouting “merde!!”  (“Shit!!” in French) as a way of warding off bad luck from the production.] There’s something about acting that makes it a breeding ground for superstitions; especially in the theater where so much can go wrong. 

In modern times, Bunraku is considered a bit of a niche and thus, it is often considered an ‘endangered theatre type’ largely because of how few craftspeople are into the whole puppet making & performance thing these days. However, Tokushima prefecture keeps the art of it alive & is considered the Ningyo Joruri hub. There’s also the Awa Wooden Doll Museum & Theatre where musical performances are still performed and watched by enthusiasts daily!!! One page I’d definitely recommend following if you like learning about this sub or want to see some of these puppets in action or if you’d like to get an even deeper understanding about Bunraku and how it is performed is @awajiningyo!! They post new videos almost daily and they even post a comprehensive guide as to how the puppets are operated & music is played (its even in English too!) they’re doing a great job at keeping people interested.

…A few Other Modern tales & Urban Legends about ‘Cursed Bunraku puppets’ specifically persist as well! – @SakuraStardust recently did a great video about a more recent one here!

Here’s a few other similar, theatrical tsukumogami or yokai that have been said to have ‘their actor’s talents’ possess them:

• Menreiki are a collection of noh theatre masks which were said to have been enchanted by the actors performances and were said to speak to each other at night.
•  Suzuri no Tamashii is an ink stone yokai said to have become animate because it had been used by a very talented calligrapher to copy the Taiheki manuscript over and over again for generations and thus the stone became enchanted and began to overflow with ink to draw out aspects of the story itself!
• Shamichoro was a sorrowful shamisen that used to belong to a master musician. But when the master retired it was only played by novices from then on out. As such, came to life as a yokai, lamenting what once was.
• Biwa-bokuboku was a particular top of the line wooden biwa, which once belonged to a blind monk. Abandoned after the monk’s death, it copied his form and wandered blindly as a zato beggar. (Biwa-obake are fairly commonplace in older illustrations as well, said to come to life when the owner doesn’t practice!)
• Koto-Furunushi is a wild floor-harp which turns into a fearsome draconic yokai! The anthropomorphic grudge of forgotten music seeks revenge!
• I’d suppose that one other similar modern urban legend that might fit this powerful artists archetype is perhaps the School Mystery about the “Haunted Music Room” wherein portraits of famous musicians that are hung on classroom walls (Bach, Beethoven, etc) come to life at night and haunt students that aren’t quite up to par. (Though that one’s admittedly a bit of a stretch.)

[woodblock print by Utashige, 19th century.]

[Art sticker & Writing by @SamKalensky (yo, thats me!) Editing by @Cattype. Part of my Hyakki Yagyo Night Parade of 100 yokai sticker series. Follow & check my shop out for many more!]