Awaji Dolls

A three-person puppet theater from Awaji Island, Hyogo Prefecture. Formerly known as Deco Theater. The puppets, stage, acting, direction, organization, and performance format all have rural characteristics, and it is often compared to the urban Bunraku of Osaka. There are various theories about its origins, but it is believed to have inherited the traditions of puppeteers from Nishinomiya, Settsu (Hyogo Prefecture) at the end of the Middle Ages, and developed under the patronage of the Hachisuka family, lords of the Awa domain (Tokushima Prefecture).

Awaji Ningyo was not an amateur folk performing art that performed only once or twice a year, but a professional local performing arts group that mainly performed in traveling shows. However, after World War II, as the public's sense of entertainment changed due to the spread of television, it became impossible to hold performances, and because it was a professional group, it was forced to collapse. Today, it can be seen at the Awaji Ningyo Joruri Museum in the Onaruto Bridge Memorial Museum in Fukura, which faces the Naruto Strait. The Awaji Ningyo Joruri performed by the Awaji Ningyo Association is a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. One of the characteristics of Awaji Ningyo is the large size of the puppets, but this has only been the case since the mid-Meiji period; before that, they were not much different from Bunraku. The size of the head of a leading role is about 13 centimeters in Bunraku, but about 17 centimeters in Awaji Ningyo. It is said that this was started because the stage and audience seats became larger in the open air, and because puppeteers (also called decomawashi) wanted to make themselves more noticeable. The structure and name of Joruri are different from Bunraku, with deeply carved faces, shiny paint, glass eyes, etc. In the past, a roofed hut covered with straw mats was built for a full-fledged play, but the stage width was about 14.5 meters compared to Bunraku's 11 meters. The stage structure was not like Bunraku's boat-bottom structure, but had high handrails and sometimes a runway. The "karakuri dogu-gaeshi," which shows a sudden reversal of the background props (a thousand tatami mats) in 12 or 24 stages, remains the same as it was in the past. Joruri storytelling is dynamic, and there were many unique kyogen plays such as "Shizugatake Shichihon-yari." They were managed by a system of theater heads, such as the Ichimura Rokunojo Theater, and in the mid-Edo period, there were as many as 40 theaters with nearly 1,000 actors, and in the mid-Meiji period there were 21 theaters.

Incidentally, since most of the doll heads were made within Awa, farmers' puppet theater troupes were established in Awa, imitating Awaji, and toured during the farming off-season. These are known as Awa puppet theaters, but they differ from the professional Awaji puppet theater in that they were essentially amateur puppet theater troupes. Nevertheless, at their peak in the early Meiji period, there were said to be over 50 troupes.

[Masahiro Nishikado]

"Awaji Puppet Show" by Kanji Niimi (1972, Kadokawa Shoten)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

兵庫県淡路島の三人遣(つか)いの人形芝居。かつてはデコ芝居とよばれていた。人形、舞台、演技、演出、組織、興行形態などに農村的な特色がみられ、都市的な大阪の文楽(ぶんらく)と対比して語られることが多い。その初発については諸説あるが、中世末ごろに摂津西宮(にしのみや)（兵庫県）の傀儡師(かいらいし)の伝承を継ぎ、阿波(あわ)（徳島県）藩主蜂須賀(はちすか)家の庇護(ひご)のもとに発展したものである。

　淡路人形は年に一、二度しか演じないような素人(しろうと)の民俗芸能ではなく、旅興行をもっぱらとする職業的な玄人(くろうと)の郷土芸能集団だった。しかし第二次世界大戦後テレビの普及など国民の娯楽感覚が変化するに伴い興行が不可能になり、職能集団であったためにかえって壊滅に追い込まれた。いまでは鳴門(なると)海峡に臨む福良(ふくら)にある大鳴門橋記念館内の淡路人形浄瑠璃(じょうるり)館でみることができる。淡路人形協会による「淡路人形浄瑠璃」は国指定重要無形民俗文化財となっている。淡路人形の特色に人形の大きなことがあげられるが、これは明治中ごろからで、それ以前は文楽と大差がなかった。首(かしら)の大きさは、立役で、文楽は13センチメートル程度だが、淡路人形では17センチメートルほどになる。野天で舞台や客席が大きくなったことや、役者（デコマワシとも）とよばれる人形遣いたちが自分を目だたせるために始めたことによるという。顔の深い彫り、照りのある塗り、ガラス製の目など作りも名称も文楽と違う。かつては本芝居となると莚(むしろ)掛けながら屋根もある掛小屋(かけごや)をつくったが、舞台間口は文楽の11メートル程度に対して14.5メートルほどもあった。舞台構造も文楽のような船底式ではなく、手すりが高く、花道がある場合もあった。背景の大道具（千畳敷）を12段とか24段とかにどんでん返しして見せる「からくり道具返し」は昔のまま残っている。浄瑠璃の語りは豪快で、『賤ヶ嶽(しずがたけ)七本槍』など独特の狂言がいくつもあった。市村六之丞(ろくのじょう)座など座元制で統括されてきたが、江戸時代中ごろ、多いときには40座、役者も1000人近くを数えたといい、明治中ごろにも21座あった。

　なお、人形の首はほとんど阿波国内で製作されていたから、阿波でも淡路にまねて農民たちの人形座が生まれ、農閑期には巡業に出たりしていた。いわゆる阿波人形芝居であるが、本質的に素人人形座である点で職業的な淡路人形芝居と異なる。それでも明治初年の最盛期には50余座を数えたという。

［西角井正大］

『新見貫次著『淡路の人形芝居』（1972・角川書店）』

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