Performed as part of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance Day and as part of the annual Nisei Week Festival in Little Tokyo
Kitsune no Cho-chin, or The Fox Lantern is a wordless table-top bunraku show set in feudal Japan. A poor rice farmer sends his son off to war under the banner of a heartless official. When the son is killed, the father journeys to the land of the dead with the help of a mysterious "kitsune" or fox-woman. With her help the father and son are eventually reunited and the official gets his just reward. With Japanese instrumental score of bamboo flute, taiko and percussion, composed and performed by George Abe, The Fox Lantern drew even the youngest audience members into its spell. Puppetry included shadow, rod, marionette and minatures.