Adachi, from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)"

Adachi is an alternate title for the play Adachiga Hara or Kurozuka, the chilling story of the man-eating demon woman of the Adachi plain. The play belongs to the kichiku-mono (demon-play) category and ranks among the most dramatic in the entire Noh canon. Tsukioka Kōgyo's print in Nōgaku Zue (Pictures of Noh Performances) approaches the subject with characteristic restraint, depicting the shite in her old-woman form rather than the spinning-wheel scene or the fully transformed demon. Published by Matsuki Heikichi circa 1898, this color woodblock print is held by the Art Institute of Chicago and reflects the Meiji-era Noh-print project that Tsukioka Kōgyo developed as the heir to Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's late ukiyo-e tradition. As with the rest of Nōgaku Zue, the sheet documents costume, mask, and stage detail with the precision that has made Kōgyo's prints standard references in studies of Noh performance.