Seio-bo, from the series "One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban)"

Tsukioka Kogyo's "Seio-bo," assigned the date 1893 by the Art Institute of Chicago, belongs to the artist's series "One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban)," one of his ambitious Meiji woodblock cycles devoted to the noh repertoire. The play takes the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wangmu, as its central figure, drawing on a long East Asian tradition that identified her with immortality and the peaches of long life. Kogyo's print presents the shite on the noh stage in the splendid costume the role demands, mask serene, the hands and fan held in formal alignment, and the patterned robes layered with the meticulous attention that defines his noh-e. As a Meiji woodblock, the design relies on patient line work and broad, controlled areas of color rather than dramatic gradations, in keeping with the contemplative pacing of the play. The "Nogaku hyakuban" series circulated as part of a sustained collaboration between Kogyo and his publishers and stands alongside his "Nogaku Zue" as a major contribution to the documentation of noh through print. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this sheet within a deeper representation of the artist's noh work. For collectors and viewers, "Seio-bo" is valuable both as an autonomous design and as a record of a play that occupies a celebratory, auspicious position within the noh repertoire, demonstrating Tsukioka Kogyo's ability to translate the still grandeur of the noh stage into the woodblock medium.