Aoi no Ue, from the series "One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban)"

Aoi no Ue is one of the most psychologically intense plays in the Noh canon, drawn from the Tale of Genji, and Tsukioka Kōgyo's treatment in Nōgaku Hyaku-ban (One Hundred Noh Dramas) honors its drama without lapsing into theatricality. The play depicts the spirit-possession of Lady Aoi, principal wife of Hikaru Genji, by the jealous living spirit (ikiryō) of his former lover Lady Rokujō. In Noh staging, Aoi herself is represented only by a folded kimono laid out at the front of the stage, while Rokujō's ghost appears as the shite, eventually transforming into a horned hannya-mask demon. Kōgyo captures this transformation with restraint, depicting the shite figure mid-performance against the bare cypress floor of the Noh stage. Published by Matsuki Heikichi, the Nōgaku Hyaku-ban series ran from 1922 to 1926 and was issued with some sheets dating to earlier states; this impression is held by the Art Institute of Chicago. The print exemplifies Kōgyo's career-long project of documenting the full Noh repertoire with the precision of a Meiji-period archivist.