Hyogo: Traditional Puppet Theater Company on Awaji Island Creates Buzz Online with Innovative Shows, Puppet Dance Videos

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:33 JST, November 15, 2025

MINAMI-AWAJI, Hyogo — A puppet theater company which performs traditional shows on Awaji Island is looking to social media and updating their performances to the modern day in a bid to win the attention of young people.

Founded in 1964 and based in Minami-Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture, Awaji Ningyoza (The Awaji Puppet Theatre) stages Awaji ningyo joruri, designated as an important intangible folk cultural property. Its theater used to attract 30,000 to 40,000 people every year, but audience figures dropped to 10,180 during the COVID-19 pandemic in fiscal 2020 and have not recovered since.

To attract young people, the company performed a short, five minute dance at their theater, with the puppets sharply bobbing their heads and limbs in time with upbeat music.

The company is also uploading short videos where puppets of characters from traditional programs dance to latest hit songs by popular singers.

The puppets’ movements in the videos are completely different from those in traditional puppet plays, so members of the company rehearsed many times while watching the original music videos. They received great responses from the public, who made comments such as, “The dances are so sharp,” and “It’s traditional performing arts updated to today.”

The company is going to take on the challenge of staging an original show, using easy-to-understand lines and adding interactive elements, such as making the puppets dance with the audience.

Yuji Miyachi, the president of the company operating Awaji Ningyoza, said, “I feel that tradition is about repeatedly taking on the challenge of doing something new.”