Tamaori-hime, from Bunraku Doll Print Collection

Tamaori-hime is a young princess role drawn from the historical-narrative jōruri repertory of the Osaka bunraku stage, performed by puppets of the wakashū-gata (young woman) kashira category, which combine a refined modeled face with the highly elaborate costume of a noble Heian-era female character. Hasegawa Konobu IV's print, part of the Bunraku Doll Print Collection issued by Maria Shobō in the mid-1950s, presents the puppet in the dignified frontal pose characteristic of the series, with attentive treatment of the long flowing hair, the heavy patterned uchikake, and the high-bound courtly hairstyle. The composition isolates the figure against a flat decorative ground so that the costume's textile patterns and the carved nuances of the kashira can be appreciated separately from the supporting hands of the puppeteer, which are omitted in the manner conventional to the bunraku puppet-print tradition. The print, in oban format, is documented through the Japanese Art Open Database from the Robert O. Muller research files.