Jusaburo Tsujimura
Kecho
The Public Theater
September 17, 18, 19 & 20
(United States Premiere)

Performed by Jusaburo Tsujimura and Osami Nagasawa
Written by Kyoka Izumi
Direction, Costumes and Puppets by Jusaburo Tsujimura
Light Design by Sayo Tauchi
Set Design by Ikuyo Shimada
Sound effects by Yoshishisa Dodo
Assistant Director: Yukio Eondo
Stage Manager: Hideki Watanabe
Translator: Setsuko Suzuki
Narrator: Hisae Miyazawa
Production Manager: Koh Takahashi
Company Manager: Sanae Harada
Producer: Noriko Segoku

Supported, in part, by The Japan Foundation, Japan Airlines, Takashimaya Co., Ltd., Asahi Shimbun America Inc. and the Japan-U.S. Partnership for the Performing Arts.

JUSABURO TSUJIMURA is best known to New York audiences as the art director for Yukio Ninagawa¹s production of Medea and Macbeth. In Japan, however, Jusaburo¹s reputation as a dollmaker and puppet builder is legendary. He was born in 1933 in Chinchow province, Manchuria. After graduating from middle school, he went to Tokyo to make a career in the theatre. He worked in the Ningyo-za puppet theatre and made stage props for the Kabuki theatre with the Fujinami Company. Eventually, he became a doll maker, winning prizes in major doll exhibitions. In 1973, he created 300 puppets for an NHK television serial drama, The Story of the Eight Dogs, an enormous hit that brought him instant fame. Since then, he has continued to work on a number of ambitious doll series¹, puppet dramas and more recently, the spectacular settings and kimonos for Ninagawa¹s theatre spectacles. His work is the subject of a major retrospective exhibition currently touring Japan and a smaller exhibit on view at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts through September 19.