1. Study Japanese culture and life in the late eighteenth century. Look for maps of eighteenth-century Japan and Osaka. Describe the government, family life, customs, and other aspects of life in Japan at this time.

2. Research the Japanese puppet theater, known as bunraku Describe how puppets were made and handled, and what life in the theaters was like.

3. Research and report on samurai life and the samurai code.

4. Research the making of Katherine Paterson's novel. Paterson derived much of her information about the Japanese puppet theater from the book Bunraku: The Art of the Japanese Puppet Theatre, by Donald Keene. She even seems to have used some of the names in this book as sources for names of her characters. Read Keene's book and see if you can figure out exactly what Paterson took from it in creating The Master Puppeteer...