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

Setsubun, from the 1922 series 'Fifty Kyogen Plays (Kyogen gojuban),' shows Tsukioka Kogyo in late maturity turning his attention squarely to kyogen, the comic counterpart to noh. The play takes its name from the festival marking the seasonal change at the start of spring and centers on a demon who arrives at the house of a woman whose husband is away. Tsukioka Kogyo (1869-1927) had spent three decades documenting the classical theater in Meiji woodblock and now Taisho-era prints, and the Kyogen gojuban series represents the culmination of his commitment to recording the broader nogaku tradition. Kogyo's design captures the comic encounter with characteristic economy, isolating the demon and the woman against an uncluttered ground so that mask, stance, and gesture carry the story. The artist had close working relationships with major kyogen actors, and his treatment respects the formal vocabulary of the Okura and Izumi schools rather than reducing the demon to caricature. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this impression. For collectors, the 1922 series is notable for its slightly warmer palette and looser line compared with Kogyo's 1890s noh-e, evidence of an artist confident enough in his idiom to relax it. The print rewards close attention to the bean-throwing prop and to the woman's resourceful posture as she prepares to drive the demon away.