Tori-oi-bune, from the series "One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban)"

Tsukioka Kogyo's "Tori-oi-bune," dated 1893 in the Art Institute of Chicago's records, comes from his series "One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban)," a Meiji-era woodblock cycle dedicated to the noh repertoire. The play, whose title translates loosely as "The Bird-Chasing Boat," centers on a woman driven to grief and madness after being separated from her son, with a riverside scene in which she joins fishermen scaring birds from the rice fields. Kogyo's print isolates a key moment from the staging, the shite shown on the noh stage with the prop and gesture that identify the play, executed in the meticulous noh-e idiom for which the artist is best known. As a Meiji woodblock, the design balances clear outlines, flat planes of color, and selective gradations, all calibrated to communicate costume, mask, and stance without overwhelming the figure with background detail. The "Nogaku hyakuban" project was undertaken in collaboration with publishers active in Tokyo's noh-print market and circulated alongside Kogyo's other major noh series. The Art Institute of Chicago holds the print as part of its substantial collection of his work, and the sheet serves as a useful study for both the iconography of "Tori-oi-bune" and Kogyo's broader strategy of treating the noh stage as a subject worthy of patient, documentary attention. Within the wider history of Tsukioka Kogyo's career, the print is one of many demonstrations of how he used woodblock to extend the audience for noh beyond those who could attend live performances.