Hajitomi

Hajitomi (半蔀, Half-Shutter) is a Noh play in which a traveling monk encounters the spirit of Lady Yugao from The Tale of Genji. The half-lattice shutter that gives the play its title functions as the central stage device — the shite (principal performer) appears framed within it, surrounded by yugao (moonflower) vines. Gyokusei's print belongs to her Noh series published by Watanabe Shozaburo, the project that established her as a [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) voice working in the same theatrical territory as her father Tsukioka Kogyo's Hyakuban (Pictures of One Hundred Noh Plays). The composition translates the staged tableau into print form: the shite in costume, likely wearing a ko-omote mask of a young woman, the geometry of the wooden shutter set against climbing vines and white moonflower blossoms. Color is held in the restrained register consistent with Noh's visual conventions, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) handling background depth.