#30

Entertaining Daruma-ningyo of Tsurigitsune (Fox Trapping), Edo Period
Live Auction

$300
sold
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Description
2" (5 cm.) - 2 1/2". The Daruma-ningyo set, depicting a kyogen theatrical performance of Tsurigitsune (Fox Trapping), includes three figures, each fashioned of toso wood composite with gofun faces, bodies wrapped in various silk textiles with kinran highlights, well depicted faces with pigment details, and internal rattles. Including the kitsune (fox), dressed as a Buddhist priest with a patchwork silk brocade robe called a kesa; the hunter wearing a silk brocade headscarf secured pinched at the top with gold wrapped thread; and an attendant. Edo period. 19th century. Daruma-ningyo were similar to tumble-toys and featured armless and legless rounded bodies that were weighted at the bottom and contained rattles inside. They are named after the Zen patriarch the Bodhidharma (Jp. Daruma) who was said to have stayed seated in meditation so long that his limbs atrophied. Tsurigitsune is a popular kyogen interlude performance and recounts the tale of the shape-shifting fox who pretends to be the Buddhist priest Hakuzosu who lectures his nephew, the trapper, on the evils of fox hunting.