I had never expected a link between them and our world. When we contacted two famous puppet players, Mr. Bungo YOSHIDA (the 5th) and Mr. Minotaro YOSHIDA, to plan a show at the ICHEP2000 as an evening program, we were surprised to find links between the artists and high energy physics. NHK TV (Japanese national broadcasting station) produced seven 90 minutes series on Einstein introducing his life and work (April-December, 1991). The program was presented by an Einstein puppet manipulated by Mr. Bungo YOSHIDA (the 5th) and his company. The puppet made the series more interesting than just showing old films and literatures. The puppet (and Mr. Bungo YOSHIDA) even traveled to Israel and had a show in Jerusalem.

	Mr. Minotaro YOSHIDA playing SAIZO

As for Mr. Minotaro YOSHIDA, I was surprised to learn that his brother-in-law is a Canadian physicist who is a member of a CERN experiment! It's a small world. Both Mr. Bungo YOSHIDA (Born May 3, 1934) and Mr. Minotaro YOSHIDA (Born March 1, 1953) have been very active in preserving the traditional art. They not only appear on many TV programs on traditional arts, but go all over the world to show Bunraku. They both have been awarded many prizes through their work. (Their last names are both YOSHIDA which is one of the famous family names which Bunraku Puppet players use. Their real names are Teruo TAKAHASI and Toyomi MIYANAGA, respectively.)

National Bunraku Company has been actively performing around the world starting from 1962 USA/Canada trip. Since then, they have performed in Europe, Australia, Canada, China, Korea, and so forth. Recent performances were in France (1997) with total of 11,600 audiences and in Germany (1999) with total of 7,000 audiences.