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

Kappo is a Meiji woodblock print by Tsukioka Kogyo, published in 1893 in Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue). Kogyo, who trained first with Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and then with Ogata Gekko, devoted nearly his entire mature career to noh-e, a genre that few earlier ukiyo-e artists had treated with sustained attention. This print follows the conventions of noh-e established in the series: a low ground line, a sparse setting and emphatic concentration on the costumed figure, faithful to the bare cedar stage of the noh theater. The keyblock outline preserves the silhouette of the robe and the formal posture, while overprinted brocade patterns and selective bokashi gradations build textiles prized by Meiji-era patrons. Restrained color - earthy ochres, muted indigo and pale gold accents - anchors the figure without illusionistic background. Kogyo's documentary authority came from his unusual access to performances during the Meiji noh revival at the Hosho and Kanze schools, allowing him to draw from observation rather than imagination. Pictures of No Performances, issued by Matsuki Heikichi, was the prelude to his more comprehensive One Hundred No Dramas and helped establish noh-e as a recognized branch of Meiji woodblock production. Together these projects form the most ambitious printed record of late nineteenth-century noh and contributed materially to the survival of the tradition in the cultural life of modern Tokyo. The Art Institute of Chicago retains this impression among its substantial Kogyo holdings. Source: Art Institute of Chicago (https://www.artic.edu/artworks/154966).