Bunraku national puppet theater of Japan Kennedy center opera house Poster.

Did come from the estate of Martha Jane Kennedy

Bent in the middle

Kennedy loved Asian Japanese art in particular a lot

Martha Jane was born Dec. 17, 1921, in Washington, D.C., to Thomas and Clephane Arnot Kennedy. After attending the Maret School, Marthajane graduated from Goucher College and Washington College of Music, magna cum laude.

Ms. Kennedy fondly remembered childhood trips abroad with her parents by ocean liner, and continued her travels well into her later years. She never married or had any children, but enjoyed many friends throughout her life.

In 1925, her father founded the Benjamin Franklin University in Washington, D.C., and it was the first American school dedicated solely to the instruction of accounting. Ms. Kennedy served as president of BFU for many years. She was a lifelong patron of the arts, and loved dogs. As a child, she had a bulldog named Happy, a name that aptly described Ms. Kennedy herself, even through her last days.

Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance: the Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai, the tayū, and shamisen musicians