Toru, from the series "One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban)"

Toru is a Meiji woodblock print of 1893 by Tsukioka Kogyo from his series One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban). The play takes its title from Minamoto no Toru, the ninth-century courtier and Sadaijin who built at his estate of Kawara-no-in a famous garden reproducing the saltwater inlet of Shiogama on the distant Michinoku coast. In the play, his ghost returns to the ruined garden on a moonlit night to recall its former splendor and to dance, in the second act, in the regalia of his official robes. Kogyo, the dominant figure in noh-e during the Meiji era, depicts the masked nobleman in the long brocaded sleeves and tall court cap that mark the role, his stance fixed in the precise attitude of a senior performer in the central dance. The Art Institute of Chicago, source of this impression, holds Nogaku hyakuban as a central Meiji woodblock project in its Kogyo collection and identifies Toru as one of its more visually rich sheets. The play is one of noh's classic meditations on ruin and memory, and Kogyo's restrained composition, with its careful patterning and quiet ground, fits the play's tone without illustrating its narrative. For collectors of noh-e, Toru is among the strongest sheets in the Hyakuban series and a clear demonstration of Kogyo's mature command of the genre.