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

Arashiyama, the celebrated mountain west of Kyoto famous for its cherry blossoms, lends its name to a Noh play in the kami-mono (god-play) category. The play celebrates the divine guardianship of the Arashiyama cherry trees, transplanted by imperial decree from Yoshino, and culminates in a dance by the god of the mountain. Tsukioka Kōgyo's print in Nōgaku Hyaku-ban (One Hundred Noh Dramas) shows the shite deity in formal first-act costume, with the cherry-tree iconography rendered in the careful detail characteristic of the series. Published by Matsuki Heikichi between 1922 and 1926, with earlier states catalogued by the Art Institute of Chicago at 1898/1903, this color woodblock print belongs to Kōgyo's encyclopedic Noh-print project — a documentary undertaking that, together with Nōga Taikan and the earlier Nōgaku Zue, constitutes the most comprehensive visual record of Noh ever produced. The sheet exemplifies the documentary fidelity that has made Tsukioka Kōgyo's Meiji- and Taishō-era prints essential to the study of Noh performance.