About This Print

One of 200 prints issued as part of the series Nōga taikan (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays).   The artist Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927) designed the vast majority of prints for this series, but died before its completion.  His student Matsuno Sōfū (1899-1963) designed this print and twenty-three additional prints for this series after Kōgyo's death.¹  This print depicts a scene from the play Kuruma-zō, sometimes attributed to the playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443).

¹ According to Robert Schapp in The Beauty of Silence: Nō and Nature Prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927), "Sōfū's contributions all appear in what would have been the first album, but in fact the last published on January 25, 1930."

The Play - Kuruma-zō (The Carriage Priest)

Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 93.

One snowy winter's day the 'carriage priest', so named because he goes everywhere in an old broken carriage, visits Saga and is there accosted by a yamabushi priest who engages him in a religious contest of words.  Defeated in this, the second priest retires but returns later in his true form as a goblin.  On this occasion he tries to overcome the other's holy power by his evil influence, but as this too proves to be beyond him he goes away acknowledging the superior power of the Buddhist priest.

Design Drawing for Carriage Stage Prop

Print Details