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

This frontispiece, designed by Tsukioka Kogyo in 1893 for the series Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue), is the title or opening sheet for one of the foundational projects of Meiji noh-e, and is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. In Japanese album-format woodblock series, the frontispiece sets the tone for the whole project: it typically integrates calligraphic title information, decorative motifs, and sometimes an emblematic image keyed to the subject, all rendered with the same level of craft as the interior plates. Kogyo's frontispiece honors that tradition, presenting the series name with the dignity appropriate to noh while leaving room for the printer's full range of techniques, including saturated traditional pigments and precise registration. Pupil of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Ogata Gekko, Kogyo conceived Nogaku Zue as a sustained documentary undertaking, an attempt to give the noh repertoire enduring visual form in the woodblock medium, and the frontispiece is the threshold through which subsequent viewers enter that project. For collectors and institutions, frontispieces are essential to a complete understanding of a Meiji woodblock series, since they identify the publisher, designer, and editorial intent in a single sheet. The Art Institute of Chicago documents this impression at https://www.artic.edu/artworks/155412, situating it within a major museum holding of Kogyo's noh prints. As a standalone object, the Nogaku Zue frontispiece offers collectors a concise introduction to Tsukioka Kogyo's noh-e and to the seriousness with which he treated the classical Japanese stage.