Bunraku Actor Print

This Hasegawa Konobu IV print from around 1950, in chuban format measuring approximately 15 3/4 by 11 inches, depicts a single bunraku puppet figure in the dignified frontal pose characteristic of the artist's postwar theatrical work. The print belongs to the broader body of bunraku puppet imagery that Konobu IV produced in collaboration with the Uchida printers of Kyoto across the 1950s, in which each carved puppet head and costumed figure is isolated against a flat decorative ground for individual appreciation. The polychrome treatment combines strong red, gold, and black accents with restrained patterned grounds, and the keyblock work is rendered in the firm linear style that distinguishes Konobu IV from his more delicate predecessor Sadanobu III. The impression, documented in the Japanese Art Open Database from the Robert O. Muller research files, preserves the saturated postwar inks and clean registration that distinguish well-pulled Uchida productions, and the work exemplifies the kamigata theatrical specialism that the Hasegawa workshop maintained into the postwar period.