BLOG 13.  “Writer doll on the karakuri chariots – How to perform”

This is the last report for Hotei-sha telling from BLOG 7. I had the permission to go into Hotei-sha and shot on this movie how to manipulate two dolls. One doll turns the base like walking around it, and the other doll holds a brush to write a kanji, or Chinese character on the paper attached the flag-plate.

As one movie file for the blog is limited within 100 Mbytes, the karakuri performance here was divided into two parts.

You can see the four men manipulate the dolls from inside of the chariot. They do not only turn the base and also turn the handle which the doll gripping as if effected that the doll turn the handle to move the base. Then one man sits on the bench in the other side of the pillar which manipulate the writer doll. This karakuri has several plates engraved one kanji word each on the surface, and the man sitting to the pillar puts the select one of the plates on the pillar. He will trace the groove of the kanji on this plate by the pen connected to the rod which manipulate the arm of the writer doll. As the result, the doll writes a kanji.