# A Puppet-show: The Story of The Potted Trees

**Bunkaku**  
early 18th century  
Ink, color, and gold on paper  
H x W: 152.6 x 377 cm (60 1/16 x 148 7/16 in)

Courtesy of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, F1898.505. [The museum's record](https://asia.si.edu/object/F1898.505/).

## About this work

This rare painting depicts the stage of the Takemoto theater in Osaka during a performance of the puppet play, The Woman's Potted Dwarf Trees. The story takes place during the reign of Hojo Tokiyori (1227-1263), a leader of the recently formed Kamakura military government. A retainer of that government, Tsuneyo, fell into disfavor and was banished. One snowy night Tsuneyo and his wife, living in much diminished circumstances, received a traveling monk seeking shelter. Tsuneyo, embarrassed by his poverty, turned the monk away, but his wife persuaded him to show mercy. When firewood had been used up, Tsuneyo removed beloved dwarf trees (bonsai) from their pots and burned them to provide warmth for his guest. Later, Tsuneyo's generous hospitality was rewarded with reinstatement, because the monk was really a high government official traveling in disguise. Until the late nineteenth century this painting remained in a family of theater musicians founded by Tsuruzawa Tomojiro (died 1747). The painting's vitality and detail suggest the passion for all types of theater performance during the Edo period (1615-1868).

_Text from the National Museum of Asian Art._

Bunkaku painted this in the early 18th century. It is now at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Ink on paper.** Ink made from soot and animal glue, ground with water on an inkstone. A single brush can give a hair-fine line or a broad wash, and nothing can be corrected.

### [Bunkaku](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/bunkaku)

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: Japanese
- Real size: about 60 × 148 in (153 × 377 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 12 × 16 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Subjects: Theater, Shamisen, Music, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Puppets, Ukiyo-e, Musicians
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1764.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1764/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/a-puppet-show-the-story-of-the-potted-trees-si-fsg-f1898-505).