Bunraku Puppet Bujin (Warrior)

Bujin, the warrior puppet, is one of the principal male character types of the bunraku stage, used for tachiyaku (leading male) roles in the historical-narrative jōruri repertory. Hasegawa Konobu IV's print, from the Bunraku Doll Print series issued by Uchida of Kyoto in the 1950s, depicts the kashira and costumed figure of a samurai warrior in full court armor, presented in the dignified frontal pose conventional to the series. The carved planes of the male face — drawn brows, defined nose, firmly set mouth — are rendered with attention to the puppet maker's modeling, and the elaborate yoroi (lamellar armor) is treated in saturated polychrome with attention to the textile patterns of the under-robes and the metallic highlights of the armor lacing. The composition isolates the figure against a flat decorative ground in the manner conventional to the series. The print is documented through the Japanese Art Open Database from the Robert O. Muller research files and forms part of Konobu IV's postwar continuation of the Hasegawa workshop's specialism in Osaka theatrical imagery.