Photograph by Nick Schnelle
Martin Holman holds a distinction you might not expect for a mid-Missourian.
The University of Missouri–Columbia professor’s atypical hobby began as a kid with a Pinocchio marionette and blossomed at Brigham Young University. After a Mormon mission trip to Kyoto, he switched his major and later studied Japanese literature at the University of California–Berkeley. Years later, after getting involved with a puppet troupe while living in Japan, he was greeted by a host of news outlets at his first performance. When Holman asked about the fuss, a TV reporter told him, “You’re the first non-Japanese person to do this.”
Today, the coordinator of Mizzou’s Japanese Studies program leads the Bunraku Bay Puppet Troupe, the only U.S. group to perform ningyo joruri, or bunraku puppetry, Holman says. The troupe has performed from Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to Japan’s Iida Puppet Festa. This month, the troupe visits the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Japanese Festival, September 5 to 7.
Traditional Japanese puppetry is usually passed down from generation to generation in Japan. How did you get into it? In 1993, I was director of the Japan Center for Michigan Universities in Hikone, Japan. The Tonda Traditional Puppet Troupe was nearby, so I decided to drop in during a rehearsal one afternoon. The troupe showed me around and then asked, “Is there anything else we can do for you?” I mentioned that I’d like to be a puppeteer. They said, “OK, be back here tomorrow.”
Of all the puppetry techniques out there, why bunraku? It’s like asking about your favorite flavor of ice cream—it’s hard to say… Technically, it’s unique. We’re dressed in black robes with hoods, but we’re visible to the audience. The puppets weigh upwards of 15 pounds, so it takes a team of three people [called ningyo-zukai] to operate them. The chief puppeteer [the omo-zukai] supports most of the weight and operates the head and right hand, another moves the left hand and arm, and a third operates the feet.
Is there something beyond entertaining that you hope the shows achieve? I’m an educator, too, so I fool people into learning something about Japanese language and culture. The pieces fit squarely into the Japanese tradition, but we try to present pieces that will allow access to Japan and a culture audiences might not be familiar with… You realize we all have the same basic DNA.
