Peeping Machine - Peeping Device

Japanese: 覗機関 - のぞきからくり

A type of street performance. In Edo, it was called "Nozoki" and in Kamigata, it was called "Karakuri". It is a spectacle of a picture explanation, in which the viewer looks through a lens under a box about 1 ken (about 1.8 m) decorated with signboard pictures, and operates a string to see pictures that change one after another. The explanation is a unique "Karakuri-bushi" and sometimes there is a dialogue between a man and a woman. The pictures were originally brightly colored and showed scenes of hell and paradise, but eventually they became popular by original adaptations of popular kyogen plays. It is also customary to show a glamorous Yoshiwara oiran procession at the end, and in the Meiji period, war stories from the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War were added, and later the subject matter also included "The Three Brave Warriors with Human Bullets."

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

大道芸の一種。江戸では〈のぞき〉，上方では〈からくり〉とも呼んだ。絵解きを見世物化したもので，看板絵で飾った1間(約1.8m)ほどの箱の下にあるレンズをのぞき，ひもを操作して次々に変わる絵を見る。説明は独特の〈からくり節〉で，男女の掛合いの場合もある。絵は極彩色で地獄極楽のようすを見せるのが古く，やがて流行の当り狂言を独自に脚色して人気を集めた。最後に華やかな吉原花魁（おいらん）道中を見せるのもきまりで，明治期には日清戦争や日露戦争の戦記物が加わり，のちに〈肉弾三勇士〉なども題材とされた。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

<<: Yoshimasa Nozogi

>>: Nose Myoken