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

Tsukioka Kogyo's Basho, from the series Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue), is a Meiji woodblock print dated 1893 and held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The print illustrates a scene from the noh play Basho, in which the spirit of a banana plant appears to a Buddhist priest in a meditation hut at the foot of a mountain. The plant, whose name evokes the broad leaves and brief life of the basho, takes the form of a woman, recites the doctrine of impermanence drawn from Buddhist scripture, and dances before withdrawing into the moonlight. The play belongs to the third category women's plays and is performed with a refined slow dance that suits its meditative theme. Kogyo's noh-e composition presents the principal figure in the patterned costume and mask of the role, holding the still posture of the dance against the bare planks and painted pine of the noh stage. Kogyo had trained under Tsukioka Yoshitoshi in the strict figure drawing of the late ukiyo-e tradition, and the discipline of his teacher's line carries through into his treatment of this poetic subject. The Nogaku Zue series, pursued across the 1890s, drew on direct observation of performances and on cooperation with the great schools then reconstructing the art under Meiji patronage. The carving renders the textile patterns of the costume with patient detail, and the printing maintains the muted ground appropriate to performance documentation. The Art Institute of Chicago documents this impression.