About This Print
One of fifty prints in the series Fifty Noh Figures in Color. This print depicts the cormorant fisher with his lighted torch in the play Ukai. For other depictions of the play see the prints Nōgakuzue, Ukai and Nōgaku hyakuban, Ukai, both by Matsuno's teacher Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927).
source: https://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/npj/npj22.htm
(The FISHER comes along the hashigakari towards the stage carrying a lighted torch.)FISHER.
When the fisher's torch is quenched
What lamp shall guide him on the dark road that lies before?
Truly, if the World had tasked me hardly
I might be minded to leave it, but this bird-fishing,
Cruel though it be in the wanton taking of life away, p. 129
Is a pleasant trade to ply
Afloat on summer streams.I have heard it told that Yūshi and Hakuyō vowed their love-vows
by the moon, and were changed to wedded stars of heaven. And
even to-day the high ones of the earth are grieved by moonless nights.
Only 1 grow weary of her shining and welcome nights of darkness.
But when the torches on the boats burn low,Then, in the dreadful darkness comes repentance
Of the crime that is my trade,
My sinful sustenance; and life thus lived
Is loathsome then.
Yet I would live, and soon
Bent on my oar I push between the waves
To ply my hateful trade.I will go up to the chapel as I am wont to do, and give my cormorants
rest.
The Play - Ukai (The Cormorant Fisher) by Sayemon
Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 203-204.
By Enami no Saemon [Sayemon]
Fifth Group
All schools
Characters:
Act 1:Waki - A traveling priest, Nichiren ShōninWaki-tsure - a traveling priestKyōgen - a local personShite - the King of Hell
Act 2:Nochi-shite - Emma, the King of HellNochi-tsure - the spirit of the wife of Yorikaze
When two travelling priests meet an old cormorant fisher one of them recognizes him as the man who gave him shelter tow or three years ago. The old man then tells them that as he broke the strict prohibition against taking life in the nearby river by fishing there nightly with his cormorants, he has been drowned in the river as punishment. In return for the priests' promise to pray for his soul he shows them how the fishing is done and then disappears. Nichiren takes up some stones and after writing part of the Lotus Sutra on them, throws them into the river. Emma, the King of Hell, then appears and tells them that although the fisherman deserves to suffer for his sins, he will send him to Paradise because of the kindness he showed the priest.
The Series - Fifty Noh Figures in ColorEach print in the series depicts a main character from a Noh play and is tipped to the top edge of a solid-colored woodblock-printed backing sheet featuring the three small pines appearing along the higashigakari 橋掛 (bridgeway) stretching from the main stage to the kagami-no-ma (mirror room) where the performers gather before going on stage. The trees are printed with a dark gold metallic pigment, a deluxe printing technique.
一
翁
No. 1
Okina二
高砂
No. 2
Takasago三
田村
No. 3
Tamura四
羽衣
No. 4
Hagoromo五
鞍馬天狗
No. 5
Kurama tengu六
竹生島
No. 6
Chikubushima七
景淸
No. 7
Kagekiyo八
態野
No. 8
Yuya十一
玉井
No. 11
Tamanoi十二
俊寬
No. 12
Shunkan十四
鐵輪
No. 14
Kanawa十五
船辨慶
No. 15
Funda Benkei十六
養老
No. 16
Yōrō十七
賴政
No. 17
Yorimasa十八
遊行柳
No. 18
Yugyō yanagi十九
石橋
No. 19
Shakkyō二〇
石橋
No. 20
Shakkyō二一
張良
No. 21
Chōryō二二
蟬丸
No. 22
Semimaru二三
姨捨
No. 23
Obasute二四
安達原
No. 24
Adachi ga
hara二五
調伏會我
No. 25
Chōbuku Soga二六
延命冠者
No. 26
Enmei kanja二七
箙
No. 27
Ebira二八
胡蝶
No. 28
Kochō二九
求塚
No. 29
Motomezuka三〇
雷電
No. 30
Raiden三一
難波
No. 31
Naniwa三二
花月
No. 32
Kagetsu三三
葵上
No. 33
Aoi no ue三四
弱法帥
No. 34
Yoroboshi三五
殺生石
No. 35
Sesshōseki三六
鍾馗
No. 36
Shōki三七
經政
No. 37
Tsunemasa三八
道成寺
No. 38
Dōjōji三九
藤戶
No. 39
Fujito四〇
鵺
No. 40
Nue四一
項羽
No. 41
Kōu四二
融
No. 42
Tōru四三
玉葛
No. 43
Tamakazura四四
山姥
No. 44
Yamanba四五
土蜘蛛
No. 45
Tsuchigomo四六
金札
No. 46
Kinsatsu四七
熊坂
No. 47 Kumasaka四八
三井寺
No. 48
Miidera四九
一角仙人
No. 49
Ikkaku Sennin五〇 猩々
No. 50
Shōjō
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #2179 |
| Title | Ukai 鵜飼 (The Cormorant Fisher) |
| Series | Fifty Noh Figures in Color 能姿五十彩 |
| Artist | Matsuno Sōfū (1899-1963) |
| Signature |  |
| Seal | unread seal beneath signature (see above) |
| Date | June 1938 |
| Edition | first and only |
| Publisher | 謡曲界発行所 Yōkyoku-kai hakkōsho [Noh song publishing house] |
| Carver | unknown |
| Printer | unknown |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent - light toning and foxing |
| Genre | nishiki-e; nōgaku zue 能樂圖繪 [Noh play picture] or 能絵 [Noh-e] |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | oban |
| H x W Paper | print: 8 1/16 x 5 3/4 in. (20.5 x 14.6 cm) backing sheet: 11 7/8 x 9 5/16 in. (30.2 x 23.7) |
| H x W Image | print: 7 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. (19.7 x 14 cm) |
| Collections This Print | Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University AcNo. arcUP2606 |
| Reference Literature |
last update:
11/13/2019 created
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