BUNRAKU (classical puppet theater doll)
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Typical Price
- Exceptional or early edition Saito print in fine condition: $3,000–$15,000
The bunraku puppet doll—rendered in isolation, disembodied from its three-person manipulation system—becomes in Saito's hands an object of concentrated theatrical presence. His print captures the stylized features of a specific puppet character type: the pale oval face, the arched brows, the red-lacquered lips that in performance convey emotion across the dark theater. Saito treats the puppet with the same hieratic frontality he reserved for Buddhist sculpture, suggesting that the doll's face and the bodhisattva's face share a common function.
歌舞伎
Woodblock print
1955
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
BUNRAKU (classical puppet theater doll) was created by Saito Kiyoshi (斎藤清).
BUNRAKU (classical puppet theater doll) depicts kabuki.
