Database: Puppeteers

Puppeteering troupes traveled between villages, moving from port to port and village to village where they performed at inns, the common rooms of shrines, and other places available. As a group, they were marginalized by those who were able to remain settled. The troupes were usually made up of several couples and their children. The performers made the dolls, manipulated them, danced, and sang. These troupes have existed since at least the 11th century.

Sometimes, these troupes were in the service of a Buddhist temple and contributed to the spread of their faith by telling pious stories or stories about miracles.

In the 13th and 14th centuries it was often women who performed the shows, and this was still the case in the 16th century. Each puppet was manipulated by a single person, who made it dance and sing. Sometimes women in the troupe also danced and sang while heavily made up. It also seems that women who manipulated the dolls were occasionally sex workers, as was often the case with dancers and storytellers at the time. It should be noted that these troupes frequently moved; therefore, they could provide information about the movements of armies, for example. By providing confidential information for a fee they were, in other words, acting as spies.

Spectators paid for the performance according to their means. Sometimes, but especially true for Noh theater, monasteries or lords paid the actors, and a collection was organized among the spectators.