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Vietnamese Water Puppet Figure
[cua060300118]
shipping weight: 5 LB
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Anyone who has travelled to the Vietnamese city of Hanoi would immediately recognize this playful figure. This is a puppet from Hanoi's renowned water puppet show. The water puppet shows (mua roi nuoc in Vietnamese) have a long history in Vietnam. Vietnam's main agricultural export and staple has always been rice, planted in shallow waters (nouc). It is only natural then, that one of their major artistic expression should develop as something performed in water. Water puppetry can be traced back to the 12th century. An inscription on a stone stele in Doi pagoda, Duy Tien district, Nam Ha province, relates a water puppet show staged in the year 1121 to mark a birthday of King Ly Nhan Tong.
Male and female puppetteers hide behind a screen and manuever the puppets with bamboo rods under the water, manipulating the marionettes by pulling strings attached to the puppets. The visual show is enhanced by fireworks, singing, drums and disturbance of the water surface itself. Being a predominently agricultural society, these water puppet shows thematically celebrate village life: ploughing the earth, planting, harvesting, weaning the rice, fishing with bamboo traps in the shallow water, etc. Other themes touch on historical exploits, and mythical fairy tales.
The puppets are traditionally carved from the wood of a jackfruit tree (caymit). I was told by an artisan that this is because the wood is soft and therefore easy to carve when it is first chopped down, and dries into a substantially harder, denser material. The figures are then lacquered with a substance extracted from what the Vietnamese call "Cay Son" or "tree of paint". The lacquer of course is very important to the lifespan of these puppets since they spend their performance time in water. Water deterioration, despite protection from the lacquer demands that puppets have to be produced often to replace those worn by use. Because of this fact, old puppets are difficult to find.
The wedge that one sees is actually the flap that the puppet maker opens to rig the stringed mechanism that moves the puppet's arms. This puppet is in working order and I purchased it in Hanoi from the puppeteer who made it. Fishing line is resourcefully used to rig these figures because they do not deteriorate as hemp would. This figure is even more thoroughly charming in life than he appears in these pictures.
Jackfruit Wood, 21" tall, 8" wide, 5lbs. Late 20th century.
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$210.00
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