shashasha

This reproduction of Taikichi Irie’s photobook “Bunraku-za,” produced on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the artist’s death, features a series of photographs taken between 1939 and 1945 – a breakout work that established his career as a photographer. The photographs documents master Bunraku artists (a Japanese form of puppet play) at the Yotsubashi Bunraku Theater (which did not survive the war) not far from Irie’s home in Tokyo and capture the atmosphere during performances as well as the world behind the scenes and the mastery of the puppets themselves. The book ends with a short essay about the art of Bunraku written by Seijiro Saito (1894–1973) (only included in Japanese).