Ama, from the series "One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban)"

Ama (The Diver) is one of the great mother-and-child plays of the Noh repertoire, attributed to Konparu Zenchiku. The play tells the story of a diver-woman of Shido in Sanuki Province who recovers a precious crystal from the underwater palace of the dragon king, at the cost of her own life — a sacrifice she makes for the sake of her child's future. In the play's second act she returns as a tennin (heavenly being) and dances in salvation. Tsukioka Kōgyo's print in Nōgaku Hyaku-ban (One Hundred Noh Dramas) captures the climactic moment of the dive, the shite figure rendered against the bare cypress of the Noh stage with the costume and props recorded in documentary detail. Published by Matsuki Heikichi, the print is held by the Art Institute of Chicago and dated to the 1898-1903 phase of the Nōgaku Hyaku-ban series. It exemplifies the documentary fidelity that has made Tsukioka Kōgyo's Meiji-era Noh prints standard references for both scholars and performers.