Index Page, prints .51-.100 (Vol.1), from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)"
- Date:
- 1898
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
This Index Page for prints 51 to 100 of Volume 1 of Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue), designed by Tsukioka Kogyo in 1893, belongs to the same Meiji woodblock series that established noh-e as a sustained printmaking genre, and is preserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the album format used for Nogaku Zue, the index pages organize the contents of each volume and identify the plays included, listing titles so that the reader can navigate the project as a structured visual encyclopedia of the noh repertoire. The sheet is rendered with the same care as the interior prints: clean line, balanced layout, and the precise registration expected from the best Tokyo workshops of the period. Pupil of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Ogata Gekko, Kogyo conceived Nogaku Zue as an ambitious documentary undertaking, and the existence of dedicated index pages underscores how seriously the project was treated as a reference work as well as an artistic achievement. For collectors and scholars, index pages such as this one are essential to reconstructing the original organization of a Meiji woodblock series, identifying which plays appeared in which volume, and confirming the completeness of a set. The Art Institute of Chicago documents the impression at https://www.artic.edu/artworks/154971, anchoring it within a substantial museum holding of Kogyo's noh prints. As a standalone object, the Nogaku Zue index page offers a quiet but informative window into Tsukioka Kogyo's editorial method and the scholarly ambitions of his noh-e project.
1898/1903
Color woodblock print; left sheet of oban diptych (right: 1943.833.42a)
1898/1903
Color woodblock print
1898
Color woodblock print
1898
Color woodblock print
Index Page, prints .51-.100 (Vol.1), from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)" was created by Tsukioka Kōgyo (月岡耕漁) in 1898.
Index Page, prints .51-.100 (Vol.1), from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)" depicts theater.
![Kabukiza [Kabuki Theater] by Sonoyama Harumi](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/10806d46-109a-d67f-30ac-d57e9b374873/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
![Inside Scene of Kabukiza [Kabuki theater] (One Hundred Views of Tokyo, Message to the 21st Century) by Obata Tsutomu](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/33905fb8-c304-71f5-6150-cb9260cf9efa/full/843,/0/default.jpg)