About This Print

Number 43* of 200 prints issued as part of the series Nōga taikan (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays) depicting a scene from the play Izutsu attributed to the playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443).  This print still maintains its semi-transparent cover sheet providing information on the play and its characters.


* number appears in the lower right hand of the cover sheet.

This play is also pictured by the artist in this collection's print Nōgaku hyakuban, Izutsu (IHL Cat. #407).

The Play - Izutsu

Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 151.
Source: Japan Society website http://www.japansociety.org/noh_kyogen_in_the_park_in_depth
The noh play Izutsu is based on The Tales of Ise (Ise Monogatari), a collection of uta-monogatari (narrative stories based on poems) compiled during the mid-Heian period (the end of the 10th–11th centuries).  This work is the masterpiece by Zeami written as a mugen noh (dream noh) play.

Plot Summary
Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 63.
Act 1: waki -a travelling priest; shite - a village woman; kyōgen - a local person
Act 2: nochi-shite - the daughter of Ki no Aritsune

A traveling priest comes to the Ariwara-dera and there sees a woman beside an old grave.  She tells him that it is the grave of Ariwara on Narihira and that she is really the daughter of Ki no Aritsune who loved Narihira faithfully all her life.  In a dream that night the priest sees the lady appear in Narihara's hat and robe.  She dances and then, looking down into the well, sees what is for her the image of her lover.  Dawn comes, the priest awakes and the lady has gone.

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#791
Title	Izutsu 井筒 (The Well)
Series	Nōga taikan 能画大鑑 (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays or A Great Mirror of Noh Pictures or A Great Collection of Noh Pictures)
Artist	Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927)
Signature	Kōgyo
Seal	Kōgyo seal, seal no. 13, p. 170 in The Beauty of Silence: Nō and Nature Prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927), Robert Schaap & J. Thomas Rimer, Hotei Publishing, 2010.
Date	December 25, 1926
Edition	unknown
Publisher	Seibi Shoten (or Seibi Shoin), Tokyo
Carver	Uchida Eikichi
Printer	Yoshida Takesaburō
Impression	excellent
Colors	excellent
Condition	excellent; 1 pin hole at upper left side; binding holes right side;  not backed
Genre	ukiyo-e
Miscellaneous	print #43
Format	oban yoko-e
H x W Paper	10 x 14 5/8 in. (25.4 x 37.1 cm)
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