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

Kamabara (literally 'sickle-belly') is a Kyōgen — the comic form that accompanies Noh in a traditional performance day — built around a domestic farce. In the play, a henpecked husband is goaded by his shrewish wife into committing seppuku (ritual suicide) with a sickle (kama), but his attempts are repeatedly interrupted by his own cowardice; the play ends in slapstick rather than tragedy. Tsukioka Kōgyo's depiction in Nōgaku Zue (Pictures of Noh Performances) captures the comic stillness of Kyōgen performance, in which exaggerated facial expression — usually masked-out in Noh — becomes a primary expressive resource. Published by Matsuki Heikichi circa 1898 and held by the Art Institute of Chicago, this Meiji-era color woodblock print belongs to Kōgyo's first systematic theatrical-print series and exemplifies the documentary fidelity that distinguishes his Noh and Kyōgen prints from earlier ukiyo-e depictions of stage subjects.