Learning Bunraku
After assisting on a puppet pilot, Elizabeth wanted to learn more about the form that inspired the series; Bunraku or Ningyō jōruri. She contacted the head of the Tonda Puppet Troupe the spring after her project to inquire if their summer program was still running. It had been shut down due to Covid-19. They gave her a task: if she could find 5 people to run the program they’d start it up again. The next summer she had enough people to run the program. So she lived there for the summer and trained with Abe Hidehiko, the head of the Tonda Puppet troupe. There she worked on her shamisen skills as well as trained on the head of the puppet. Traditionally one can not touch the head until the end of their career.
