Flip the puppet back and forth to reveal a simple, dynamic story! This project was part of our library’s World Kamishibai Day performance. Called tachi-e (“standing pictures”), the puppets originate from 19th century Japan.
You’ll need:
- 2 rectangles of white paper
- 2 rectangles of black poster board
- 1 pair of new, intact chopsticks
- Scissors and glue for construction
- Markers, pens, and color pencils for decorating
- Hot glue
A tachi-e puppet is two sided. The first side is the puppet at rest, then quickly flip it to create a change. This Japanese lantern ghost was designed by artist Tara McGowan:
It’s way cooler to see the puppet in action though…
First, draw a 2-step sequential scene on 2 separate rectangles of white paper. Cut each drawing out, then glue each on a rectangle of black poster board (our rectangles were 5.5″ x 8.5″). Hot glue a pair of new, intact chopsticks to the back of the first poster board rectangle, then hot glue the second poster board rectangle on top of it. Twirl the stick to operate the puppet!
The kids had some great idea for puppets. I managed to snap a couple. A hatching chick…
A budding tree (with squirrels running up the trunk!)…
A very sweet butterfly…
A single fish that goes “Pop!” and turns into a school of fish…
An exploding firework…
And a girl that duplicates into 5 girls!
If that last one seems a little confusing, it was inspired by a kamishibai performance of Manmaru manma tantakatan (written by Fumiko Araki, and illustrated by Takuya Kusumi). It’s about a ninja boy who duplicates himself to foil a wicked serpent.
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