Sarumuko, from the series "Fifty Kyogen Plays (Kyogen gojuban)"

Sarumuko, dated 1922 and from 'Fifty Kyogen Plays (Kyogen gojuban),' illustrates the comic kyogen in which a monkey trainer arrives to negotiate a marriage between his monkey and a daimyo's daughter. The play turns on the absurdity of the proposal and on the trainer's ability to keep the monkey behaving through the awkward formal exchanges. Tsukioka Kogyo (1869-1927) brought his usual discipline to a play that could easily descend into farce, isolating the figures against an open ground and rendering costume and posture with the same precision he applied to the most solemn noh plays. By the time this Meiji woodblock and Taisho-era sequel series appeared, Kogyo had spent thirty years documenting nogaku and had established noh-e as a coherent genre in print. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this impression. The trainer's lead rope, the small monkey costume worn by a child actor or a puppet in performance, and the daimyo's elaborate household robes are recorded with attention sufficient to satisfy practitioners as well as casual viewers. Kogyo had collaborated for decades with publishers and actors who trusted him to get the visual details right, and this sheet rewards a viewer who knows the play's particular comic rhythms. For collectors building a group of marriage-themed kyogen, Sarumuko is one of the most charming entries in the series.