Sakuragawa, from the series "One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban)"

Tsukioka Kogyo's Sakuragawa, from the series One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban), is a Meiji woodblock print dated 1893 and held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The print depicts a scene from the noh play Sakuragawa, the Cherry River, in which a mother driven to distraction by the disappearance of her son Sakurago wanders to the banks of the Sakura River in Hitachi, where the falling petals on the water echo her grief. A priest who has adopted the boy brings the lost son to the place, and the play closes in their recognition. Kogyo's noh-e composition presents the figure of the mother in the patterned costume and mask of the role, holding the still posture of the dance in which she catches the petals from the river, against the bare planks and painted pine of the noh stage. As Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's pupil, Kogyo had been trained in the strict figure drawing of the late ukiyo-e tradition, and the discipline of that line carries through into his treatment of this lyrical play. The Nogaku Hyakuban project, projected as a survey of one hundred noh dramas, formed the basis for the more thorough Nogaku Zue series he would pursue across the rest of the 1890s. The carving translates the textile patterns into precise blocks of pigment, and the printing maintains the muted ground appropriate to performance documentation. Documentation for this impression appears in the Art Institute of Chicago's online catalogue.