About This Print
Number 56* of 200 prints issued as part of the series Nōga taikan (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays) depicting a scene from the play Makura Jidō1 by an unknown playwright. This print still maintains its semi-transparent cover sheet providing information on the play and its characters.cover sheet
click on image to see detail
click on image to see detail
* number appears in the lower right hand of the cover sheet.
1 Makura Jidō is the title used by the non-Kanze schools of noh. This play is titled Kiku Jidō 菊慈童 by the Kanze school. The Kanze play titled Makurajido is a different play.
The Play - Makura Jidō
Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 98-99.Characters
waki - an Imperial envoy; waki-tsure - two retainers; shite - the child Jidaō
An Imperial envoy in ancient China is sent by the Emperor to trace the source of a wonderful elixir. In the hills he meets a child who tells him that it is he who makes the elixir of life by writing a magic formula on chrysanthemum leaves and floating them in the stream. The formula he obtained from an Emperor of old who had had to exile him to this place when he inadvertently stepped across this pillow. He then entertains the envoy with a dance and gives him some of the magic liquid which has preserved his youth for him over hundreds of years.
Print Details
IHL Catalog | #798 |
Title | Makura Jidō 枕慈童 (Jidō and the Pillow) |
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 #56 |
Format | oban yoko-e |
H x W Paper | 10 x 14 5/8 in. (25.4 x 37.1 cm) |
Collections This Print |