Tsuchi-guruma, from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)"

Tsukioka Kogyo's 1893 print "Tsuchi-guruma" comes from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)," the artist's sustained Meiji woodblock survey of the noh stage. The play, whose title translates as "The Earth Cart," centers on a court servant traveling to deliver tribute and the encounters and reflections that unfold along the way, with the cart itself functioning as both prop and emblem on the noh stage. Kogyo's design presents the shite in characteristic noh posture, costume detailed with care and the small accouterments of the role rendered so that a knowledgeable viewer can identify the play at once. As a Meiji woodblock production in the noh-e tradition, the sheet relies on clean keyblock outlines, restrained areas of color, and the bare cypress floor of the stage rather than illusionistic landscape. "Nogaku Zue" was published by Daikokuya Matsuki Heikichi as part of a broader effort to document and celebrate the noh repertoire during a period when the art form was being reestablished after the loss of shogunal patronage in the early Meiji era. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves the print as part of its strong holdings of Tsukioka Kogyo's work, and the impression rewards close inspection for the precision of its costume patterning and the deliberate balance of its composition. For collectors of noh-e and students of Meiji print culture, "Tsuchi-guruma" exemplifies the documentary, scholarly mode that Kogyo brought to the genre, prioritizing accurate representation of the stage over theatrical exaggeration.