Tamao Yoshida is a dominating figure in the bunraku theater of today: A living national treasure, he has a 62-year history as a puppeteer. Onstage, he is elegantly composed, his countenance impassive as he manipulates his puppet with the aid of two assistants covered in black. Offstage, he is vigorous and forthright, and chain smokes his way through conversation.
A native of Osaka, where bunraku theater originated in the late 17th century, Tamao was born Ueda Sueichi in 1919, in the area of Nipponbashi where the National Bunraku Theater now stands.
Tamao decided to pursue a living as a puppeteer at the age of 14 after seeing three bunraku performances, "though I was not particularly attracted to bunraku at the time," he says.