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

Tsukioka Kogyo's Shoki, from the series Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue), is a Meiji woodblock print dated 1893 and held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The print illustrates a moment from the noh play Shoki, named for the Chinese demon-queller Zhong Kui, who in legend appeared in the dream of the Tang emperor Xuanzong and pledged to expel evil from the realm. The play belongs to the fifth category demon plays and is performed with the heavy bearded mask, broad-brimmed hat, and patterned robes appropriate to the figure of the queller. Kogyo's noh-e composition presents Shoki in the costume and mask of the role, holding the still posture of the climactic dance against the bare planks and painted pine of the noh stage. Kogyo had trained under Tsukioka Yoshitoshi in the strict figure drawing of the late ukiyo-e tradition, and his line work here shows that discipline applied to the bold and forceful figure of the demon-queller. The Nogaku Zue series, pursued across the 1890s, drew on direct observation of performances and on cooperation with the great schools then reconstructing the art under Meiji patronage. The carving renders the textile patterns of the costume with patient detail, and the printing maintains the muted ground appropriate to performance documentation rather than the saturated colour of popular theatre prints. The Art Institute of Chicago documents this impression in its online catalogue.