National Bunraku Theater is the fourth national theater in Japan. It opened in 1984 as the theater to present Bunraku, an UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage, and other theatrical performances such as Buyo (Japanese traditional dance), Hogaku (Japanese traditional music), Minzoku Geino (folk performing arts), and Engei (traditional popular performing arts). Designed by one of Japan’s representative architects, Kisho Kurokawa, the reminder of yagura (a watch tower), which an approved theater conventionally had in front in the old times, is set up on the upper front of the building. On the first floor inside, pictures of shibai-e (scenes from kabuki plays) painted by Shoshin Hasegawa V are put up in accordance with the plays being performed. The main hall is large enough to equip 800 seats. As its name shows, this theater plays the role of promulgating Bunraku. Bunraku is the traditional puppet theatre that Japan can boasts to the world. It was originally the name of the theatre in which this puppet drama was performed, but gradually it came to be used as the name of the art itself and is today used as the official name of the puppet theatre. Bunraku consists of three parts; joruri or a narrative drama, shamisen music, and the puppets plays. These three components are performed together to create the unique world of Bunraku.

The original form of Noh can be trace back to the Nara period (710−794), however, the present Noh form was established during the Muromachi period (1336−1573) by Kan’ami and his son Zeami. Noh is a classical Japanese musical performance with the primary character called the Shite and the Jiutai (chorus) and the Hayashi. The Shite plays the hero or the heroine, chanting and dancing, while the Hayashi (instrumentalists) play the instruments. The main aspect of Noh is that the Shite wears a mask to hold the expressions of delight, anger, sorrow and pleasure to a minimum and express the nicety of the feelings only by the slow movements. The playacting in Noh is combined with dances and shosa (steps and movements of the actors) are abstract. All the linguistic expression is given in the form of utai (chanting). The Jiutai not only sing for the actors’ dancing but also explain the psycology of the characters and the background of the scene. Each performance is given according to a particular style and the artistic quality of Noh is maintained by upholding the conventional styles.