Passed
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Description
30" (76 cm.) Unusual large-scale puppet with head, hands and feet carved of wood and covered in gofun with painted details, silk fiber hair in the short style of a young girl with silk crepe hair ribbon, wearing silk crepe textiles bearing a water and chrysanthemum pattern with drawn-up lower hem, a bast fiber belt and silk pilgrim's bib, Early Meiji Era, late-19th century. Exhibited Mingei International Museum (2005) and published Ningyo: The Art of the Japanese Doll, p. 238. Structurally, female bunraku puppets are never depicted with feet, which always remain hidden behind the folds of their kimono. As a pilgrim, however, Otsuru wears tight leggings and her feet are revealed. It is rare for Bunraku narratives to feature young girls; the character of Otsuru is perhaps the most famous. In the play Awa no naruta (Whirlpools of Awa), Otsuru's parents left her behind as an infant to embark on a quest to recover a lost sword. Years later Otsuru sets out on her own quest to find her parents, travelling as a Buddhist pilgrim. In her long journey she happens to stop at the house where her parents are in hiding while fleeing authorities. Ultimately her mother recognizes Otsuru and is then faced with the choice of leaving the child in ignorance or reuniting and thereby forcing her child into the life of a fugitive. Reluctantly she lets the child go. In a cruel twist of fate, Otsuru's father later stumbles upon her and tries to steal her coin purse. In the struggle he accidentally and unwittingly kills his own daughter. Such is the stuff of bunraku.