Small stick-puppets manipulated by solo puppeteers

Saeki Doro is a lantern festival held in union of four shrines in prayer for a good harvest and the repose of ancestors' souls. Puppet theater here is performed on a movable stage called dai doro, or platform lantern. Small, thirty-five centimeter stick-puppets are manipulated by solo puppeteers. They support the doll with the left hand holding the bamboo rod inserted into its back and control the neck movements with two strings. Hand movements are manipulated with sticks attached to both of the puppet's hands.