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

Tako, from the 1922 series 'Fifty Kyogen Plays (Kyogen gojuban),' depicts the kyogen play in which the ghost of an octopus appears to a priest, transforming what could be macabre material into broad comic effect. Tsukioka Kogyo (1869-1927) selected the play for inclusion in his definitive late-career kyogen series, applying the noh-e conventions he had refined over three decades of Meiji woodblock production to a comic subject. The design isolates the figure against the bare ground that Kogyo had long used to mirror the noh stage itself, focusing attention on the elaborate octopus costume with its tentacled headpiece and unusual silhouette. The play is performed by both the Okura and Izumi schools and remains a favorite for its blend of religious satire and visual humor. Tsukioka Kogyo had emerged from the studios of Ogata Gekko and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi but came into his own as a specialist documenter of nogaku, and the careful rendering of the octopus prop here demonstrates the same documentary rigor he brought to his most solemn noh designs. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this impression. For collectors interested in the more unusual creatures of the kyogen stage, Tako sits well alongside other animal and supernatural designs in the series, and the print offers a useful counterpoint to the more austere ghost plays Kogyo recorded in his noh-e work.