Atsumori, from Bunraku Doll Print Collection

Atsumori, the youthful Taira nobleman killed at the battle of Ichinotani in 1184, is one of the great tragic roles of the bunraku stage, drawn from the puppet play Ichinotani futaba gunki (Chronicle of the Two Leaves at Ichinotani). Hasegawa Konobu IV's print from the Bunraku Doll Print Collection, published by Uchida of Kyoto in the 1950s, isolates the kashira of the young warrior against a flat ground so that the carver's modeling of the youthful, almost feminine face — characteristic of the wakashū-gata puppet category — and the elaborate court armor and headgear can be read in detail. The figure is presented in the dignified frontal pose of the bunraku stage, before the moment when the Genji general Kumagai will be forced to take his head in the play's famous shōchitai scene. Konobu IV's treatment uses a postwar polychrome register with strong reds, golds, and blacks, and the composition follows the conventions of his predecessor Sadanobu III's earlier bunraku documentary work. The print, in oban format and dimensions of approximately 15 1/4 by 10 1/4 inches, is documented through the Japanese Art Open Database, where the Robert O. Muller files preserve a Good-condition impression of the Uchida edition.