Martin Holman’s interest in puppetry started early in life.
“I’ve loved puppet theater of all kinds since I was a child,” he recalls. “The first thing I can remember asking Santa Claus to bring to me for Christmas was a marionette.”
Little did he know at the time his passion for puppets would lead him to become the first non-Japanese to train and perform in Japan as a traditional puppeteer in the style known as ningyō jōruri, which translates as a “dramatic narrative with dolls/puppets.”