Yowa Hoshi, from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)"

Tsukioka Kogyo's Yowa Hoshi, from the series Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue), is a Meiji woodblock print dated 1893 and held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The title refers to the noh play known as Yoroboshi, the staggering monk, in which a young blind man cast out by his father for slander wanders to the temple of Tennoji at Osaka, where his father, repentant, has gone to perform the equinox rites and gives alms to the blind without knowing the recipient. The play unfolds through the moment of recognition, the youth's dance, and the reconciliation that follows. Kogyo's noh-e composition presents Yoroboshi in the patterned costume and mask of the role, holding the still posture of the dance that he performs at the temple gate at sunset, 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 tradition, and the discipline of that line carries through into his treatment of this contemplative play. The Nogaku Zue series, pursued across the 1890s, drew on direct observation of performances and on cooperation with the great schools then reconstructing the art under Meiji patronage. The carving renders the textile patterns with patient detail, 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.