Prologue to Chushingura: Played with an extraordinary degree of solemnity and stylization. It is the only play of all those derived from the puppet theater wherer the traditional prologue is preserved. When the curtain opens the characters who appear in the play are presented sitting motionless as if they were puppets. Then, as the music begins and their names are called one by one, they lift their heads in turn and become "human beings."

Source: Source: Masakatsu Gunji, KABUKI, p. 121; photo: Chiaki Yoshida.