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

Tsukioka Kogyo's Yamamba, from the series One Hundred No Dramas (Nogaku hyakuban), is a Meiji woodblock print dated 1893 and held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The print illustrates a scene from the noh play Yamamba, one of the most philosophical works in the repertoire. A Kyoto dancer famed for her interpretation of the mountain crone Yamamba travels through the mountains and meets the true Yamamba herself, who reveals the cycles of nature and impermanence that animate her ceaseless wandering. The fifth category demon play is performed with the heavy white-haired mask and patterned robes of the supernatural figure. Kogyo's noh-e composition presents Yamamba 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](/glossary/ukiyo-e) tradition, and the discipline of his teacher's line carries through into his career as the leading visual chronicler of the classical stage. The Nogaku Hyakuban project, projected as a survey of one hundred noh dramas, formed the basis for the more thorough Nogaku Zue series he would pursue across the rest of the 1890s. The carving translates the textile patterns of the costume into precise blocks of pigment, and the printing maintains the muted ground appropriate to performance documentation. Documentation for this impression appears in the Art Institute of Chicago's online catalogue.