The Kennedy Center has a decades-long commitment to presenting Japanese arts and culture, and annually partners with Japan Society, New York, to feature a touring production. This year’s presentation highlights traditional Japanese puppet theater through the National Theatre, which for the first time in nearly two decades returns to the U.S. in a five-city tour organized by the Society.

Known for its unique puppetry technique developed in the mid-18th century involving three-person manipulation, the National Theatre offers two quintessential masterpiece scenes from its repertoire. The Forest by the Tenjin Shrine scene from The Love Suicides at Sonezaki (Sonezaki Shinju) is a tragic tale written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, who is often referred to as Japan’s Shakespeare. The Fire Watchtower scene from Oshichi, the Greengrocer’s Daughter (Date Musume Koi no Higanoko) depicts a woman’s desperate act to save her lover. Three puppeteers make each half-life-size doll act out a dramatic narrative in delicate, uncannily realistic movements alongside live chanting and music from a shamisen (a three-stringed instrument resembling a lute or banjo). It’s a distinctive configuration designated by UNESCO as “the Intangible Cultural Heritage” aligned with noh and kabuki.

The National Theatre’s U.S. tour is produced by Japan Society under partnership with Japan Arts Council, which is supported, in part, by Japan Cultural Expo 2.0, All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., Kikkoman Corporation, and Suntory Holdings Limited. The program is also supported by the John and Miyoko Davey Foundation and Takenaka Corporation.

“The captivating elegance and beauty of Bunraku puppet theater, one of Japan’s traditional art forms, should be seen by everyone. It truly is puppetry dance theater that I love and wanted to include on this year’s series.”

—Alicia Adams, Kennedy Center Vice President of Dance and International Programming