also: くぐつ
Refers to a literal puppet or marionette, as well as a person or entity controlled by others. The figurative use is common in political contexts.
The country's leader became a puppet of the great power.
He is nothing more than a puppet in the political world.
In this puppet show, elaborate marionettes are used.
Less common than the puppet sense; refers to the person who manipulates puppets. Can also be used figuratively for a behind-the-scenes controller.
The puppeteer breathes life into each puppet one by one.
Only with reading くぐつ
Archaic sense restricted to the reading くぐつ. Historically referred to female entertainers or prostitutes associated with puppeteering troupes.
In ancient times, 傀儡 (くぐつ) referred to itinerant performers.
The military installed the former minister as a puppet and seized power.
操り人形 specifically names a string-operated marionette, while 傀儡 is broader and can describe any manipulated figure or a figuratively controlled person.
手先 describes a person used as a tool or pawn by someone else, similar to the figurative sense of 傀儡, but 傀儡 more strongly implies political or institutional control.
傀儡 stresses being controlled like a puppet by others, while 置物 in this sense just means a leader who holds the title but no real power.
Used for humanoid figures such as dolls, statues, and corpses; for puppets it can be used when treating them as human-like figures.
Standard kanji spelling for the reading かいらい. Used for both literal puppets and figurative puppet-like entities.
Archaic reading for the same kanji, used historically for puppeteers and prostitutes. Marked as gikun.
The kanji 傀 and 儡 both relate to large or strange figures. The word originally referred to puppets used in ancient Chinese and Japanese entertainment. The reading くぐつ is an older Japanese term for puppeteers and the associated performers, later extended to mean prostitute. The modern reading かいらい is the Sino-Japanese on'yomi.