Puppets of nostalgia : the life, death, and rebirth of the Japanese Awaji ningyō tradition

This work examines the ritual origins and religious dimesions of puppetry in Japan. It describes the life, death and rebirth of "awaji ningyo shibai", the unique form of puppet theatre of Awaji Island that has existed since the 16th century. Puppetry rites on awaji helped to maintain rigid purity codes and to keep dangerous spiritual forces properly channelled and appeased. Law conducted fieldwork on Awaji, located in Japan's Inland Sea, over a ten-year period. In addition to being an history and ethnography of this ritual tradition, the book is, at a theoretical level, a study of the process and meaning of tradition formation, reformation, invention and revitalization. It describes the activities of the island's ritual puppeteers and includes an English translation of their performance texts and detailed description of their rites.

Puppets of Nostalgia is the first major work in any Western language to examine the ritual origins and religious dimensions of puppetry in Japan. In a lucid and engaging style accessible to the general reader, Jane Marie Law describes the "life, death, and rebirth" of awaji ningyo shibai, the unique form of puppet theater of Awaji Island that has existed since the sixteenth century. Puppetry rites on Awaji helped to maintain rigid ritual purity codes and to keep dangerous spiritual forces properly channeled and appeased. Law conducted fieldwork on Awaji, located in Japan's Inland Sea, over a ten-year period. In addition to being a detailed history and ethnography of this ritual tradition, Law's work is, at a theoretical level, a study of the process and meaning of tradition formation, reformation, invention, and revitalization. It will interest scholars in a number of fields, including the history of religions, anthropology, cultural studies, ritual and theater studies, Japanese studies, and social history. Focusing on the puppetry tradition of Awaji Island, Puppets of Nostalgia describes the activities of the island's ritual puppeteers and includes the first English translation of their performance texts and detailed descriptions of their rites. Because the author has lived on Awaji during extended periods of research, the work includes fine attention to local detail and nuanced readings of religious currents in Japan that affect popular religious expression. Illustrated throughout with rare photographs, the book provides an in-depth view of a four-hundred-year-old tradition never so thoroughly revealed to Western readers. Originally published in 1997. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Of Stories and Fragments31In the Shape of a Person: The Varieties of Ritual Uses of Effigy in Japan172Kadozuke: The Outsider at the Gates493A Crippled Deity, a Priest, and a Puppet: Kugutsu and Ebisu-kaki of the Nishinomiya Shrine894A Dead Priest, an Angry Deity, a Fisherman, and a Puppet: The Narrative Origins of Awaji Ningyo1375Puppets of the Road, Puppets of the Field: Shiki Sanbaso, Ebisu-mai, and Puppetry Festivals on Awaji1646Puppets and Whirlpools: Icons, Nostalgia, Regionalism, and Identity in the Revival of Awaji Ningyo204Epilogue265Notes267Bibliography301Index313