Hoka-zo, from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)"

Hoka-zo is a Meiji woodblock print by Tsukioka Kogyo, published in 1893 in Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue). The play centers on the brothers Hoka, itinerant entertainers in the Hoka-zo (drumming-priest) tradition, who avenge their father's murder while performing on a flat hand-drum. The piece combines pathos and skillful percussive movement, and it is one of the more theatrically vivid noh in the repertoire. Kogyo, who studied with Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Ogata Gekko, treats the subject with the disciplined restraint that defines noh-e. The composition follows the conventions of the bare cedar noh stage: a low ground line, sparse setting and emphatic focus on the costumed figure. The keyblock outline preserves the silhouette of the performer with the hand-drum slung across the body, while overprinted patterns and selective bokashi gradations build the textures of the robe and the drum's lacquered surfaces. A palette of muted earth tones, soft blues and small accents of red conveys both the wandering character and the underlying gravity of the revenge plot. Kogyo's documentary precision derived from his unusual access to performances at the Hosho and Kanze schools during the Meiji noh revival. Pictures of No Performances, issued by Matsuki Heikichi, was his first dedicated noh series and the prelude to the monumental One Hundred No Dramas. The Art Institute of Chicago retains this impression as part of its substantial Kogyo collection, where it stands as an authoritative example of late nineteenth-century Meiji woodblock printing devoted to theatrical subjects. Source: Art Institute of Chicago (https://www.artic.edu/artworks/154983).