In Western countries puppetry is a form of entertainment aimed at children. From Punch and Judy to the Muppets, Western puppet theater has been small scale, emphasizing broad, slapstick humor and simple, if any, plots.
In Japan, however, puppetry has always been a serious form of drama, with roots in religious observances and a long history of mutual influences with live-actor drama. The bunraku puppet plays of Osaka have become known around the world, and as every student of Japanese drama knows, many of Japan's greatest plays were written first for the puppet stage.
The word "bunraku" itself is relatively recent, derived from the 19th-century theatrical producer Uemura Bunrakuken, whose Bunraku-za was the most important Osaka puppet theater. More generally known as ningyo joruri, puppet theater has a number of folk traditions scattered around the country, local variations descended from the itinerant puppeteer troupes who played at planting and harvest festivals in past centuries.