Samuel James Wood is one of the United States' foremost practitioners of Bunraku, traditional Japanese puppetry. He was born in Warrenton, Virginia in 1985. A pupil and close friend of J. Martin Holman, he first studied Bunraku in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, making his stage debut in 2003 with the 170-year-old Tonda Traditional Bunraku Puppet Troupe..
