Karakuri puppet

Karakuri puppets (からくり人形, karakuri ningyō) are traditional Japanese mechanized puppets or automata, made from the 17th century to the 19th century. The dolls' gestures provided a form of entertainment. The word karakuri has also come to mean "mechanisms" or "trick" in Japanese. It is used to describe any device that evokes a sense of awe through concealment of its inner workings.

The name karakuri is thought to come from the Japanese verb karakuru, which means "to pull, stretch, and move a thread". It is alternatively written in kanji as 絡繰り, 絡繰, 機巧, 機関, and archaically as 唐繰.