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

Tsukioka Kogyo's Yokihi, 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 moment from the noh play Yokihi, which adapts the Chinese legend of Yang Guifei, beloved of the Tang emperor Xuanzong, who returns after her death as a spirit dwelling in the Palace of the Immortals on the island of Penglai. The play unfolds as a Taoist medium reaches her there at the emperor's bidding, and Yang Guifei recounts in dance the brilliance and loss of her life at court. Kogyo's noh-e composition presents the figure of Yokihi in the elaborate patterned costume of the role, holding the still posture of the dance against the bare planks and painted pine of the noh stage. As Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's pupil, Kogyo had been trained in the strict figure drawing of the late [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) tradition, and that lineage carries through into his careful contour and proportion. 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 decade. The carving translates the textile patterns 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.