About This Print

Number 54* of 200 prints issued as part of the series Nōga taikan (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays) depicting a scene from the play Kiso by an unknown playwright.  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.

The Play - Kiso

Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 79-80.
Characters
Act 1: tsure - Kiso no Yoshinaka;  shite - Kakumei; tsure - Ikeda no Jirō; tsure - five or six of Yoshinaka's men

During his struggles with the Taira, Kiso no Yoshinaka camps in Etchu province near a shrine to Hachiman, the God of War.  Pleased at this good omen, he has his amanuensis Kakumei write a petition for him and, giving him one of his arrows to take with it, sends him to present this before the god.  On his return Kakmei tells Yoshinaka that the local people wish to give a feast in his honour.  Kakumei dances as part of the entertainment, and then white doves are seen flying from the direction of the shrine, happy auguries of future victory.

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#796
Title	Kiso 木曽 (Lord Kiso)
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	rai (Thunder) seal, seal no. 12, 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 upper left; binding holes right side;  not backed
Genre	ukiyo-e
Miscellaneous	print #54
Format	oban yoko-e
H x W Paper	10 x 14 5/8 in. (25.4 x 37.1 cm)
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