The Master Puppeteer

Chapter 1 of The Master Puppeteer sets up the inciting action and establishes the upcoming conflict. Jiro's life is revealed as well as the hatred Isako feels for Jiro because Jiro has survived. It...

The conflict in "The Master Puppeteer" is a man versus society conflict. In the feudal system that provides the setting, there is a clear delineation between those who have and those who...

In the Master Puppeteer Kinishi is the son of puppet master Yoshida and as such is expected to be a talented puppeteer. Yoshida is hard on Kinishi and drives him roughly with writhing criticism and...

Jiro, having discovered the identity of the renegade Saburo, flees Hanaza in fear for his life.  He is determined to find his mother and Kinshi. As he runs through the streets he meets his...

Thirteen-year-old Jiro is the son of Hanji, the puppet maker, and his disagreeable wife Isako, in feudal Japan. Times are hard, and there is a great discrepancy between the rich and the poor during...

At the conclusion of Katherine Paterson’s book The Master Puppeteer, thirteen-year-old Jiro discovers that his close friend Kinshi has had his hand cut off. Previously in the book, Kinshi stopped...

The identity of Saburo, the Robin Hood-like bandit who helps the poor during famine in Osaka in the late 1700s, is revealed in Chapter 13. It is Okada, the old, blind chanter, the master puppeteer.

The Master Puppeteer is a historical novel set in eighteenth-century Japan. Author Katherine Paterson skillfully intertwined many elements of Japanese feudal society of this era, showing how...

In The Master Puppeteer Jiro is a thoughtful character and he is resourceful. During difficult times he chooses to leave home to become an apprentice at the Hananza puppeteering school so that he...

Okada can be considered the master puppeteer in two ways. The first is as an actual puppeteer, and the second is as a social bandit who deceives everyone. First, as the senior artist of the puppet...

One theme or lesson to be taken from The Master Puppeteer is that of the good side and the bad side of manipulation. Jiro learns that the puppet master manipulates the audience to cause them to...

Saburo is a master of disguises, so no one knows exactly what he looks like; but he is recognized by the nature of his crimes. Saburo steals rice to give to the poor, and his expoits are mentioned...

Among other things, The Master Puppeteer is a coming-of-age story. Over the course of the story, Jiro matures considerably, overcoming many obstacles and much adversity in his journey to manhood....

The quote to which you refer,"Jiro pulled the quilt over his head and stuffed the rice-hull pillow against his mouth. He couldn't let them hear him crying",comes at the end of Chapter 2....

There are a number of conflicts in Paterson's novel, but the most pressing one on the surface at least involves the Robinhood-like figure Saburo and the protagonist, Jiro's conflict over what...

In Katherine Paterson’s novel, Jiro is the son of a Bunraku puppet maker, Hanji. Jiro is clever, resourceful, and quick-witted, but also impatient and more than a little arrogant. When his family...

Hello! You asked what money is used in The Master Puppeteer. It sounds like you are asking about the currency. There are a few instances in the book where money is mentioned. I quote them below:...

Saburo is a Robin Hood-like outlaw who steals from the rich, embarrassing the police in the process because they don't know his real identity or where he will strike next. When Saburo demands that...

From the Quicknotes: The Master Puppeteer is an engaging mystery story involving a Robin Hood-like outlaw called Saburo, who has developed ingenious methods of stealing from the rich and eluding...

In Jiro's world, selfless, large-hearted leaders and teachers (from parents upward) understand that unscrupulous, evil-minded, small-hearted people are prevalent in life and that their presence...

The protagonist of Katherine Paterson's novel The Master Puppeteer is a thirteen-year-old boy who runs away to a theater in order to learn the art of making stage puppets. However, Jiro is a clumsy...

In the eighteenth-century Japanese society in which the play is situated, a rigid hierarchy kept working people indebted to upper-class people. One key mechanism for maintaining inequality was the...