About This Print

One of 200 prints issued as part of the series Nōga taikan (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays), it depicts a scene from the play Kureha by the playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443).

The Play - Kureha 

Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p.91.

On his way to pray at Nishinomiya, a Court official sees two women in the village of Kureha, one of whom is weaving and the other reeling thread.  When he asks them who they are, he is told that they are the two girls, Kurehatori and Ayahatori, who introduced weaving into Japan in the reign of Emperor Ōjin.  After promising to return this same night to weave some cloth for the present Emperor, they disappear.  Kurehatori later returns and dances in celebration of the happy reign; and in his dream, the official sees them both weaving heaps of rare damask for the Emperor.

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