About This Print

One of 200 prints issued as part of the series Nōga taikan (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays) depicting a scene from the play Nishiki-gi attributed to the playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443).

The Play - Nishiki-gi

Source:A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 124.
In a village in Mutsu a priest meets a woman with a length of cloth over her arm and a man carrying a small, colored tree.  He learns that the cloth is woven from birds' feathers and that the tree is a sign by which a man may declare his love for a woman by leaving it outside her house.  She can respond by taking the tree in or refuse him by leaving it standing outside.  The two take the priest to the burial mound of a man who, after leaving such trees outside a woman's house every day for three years, died from a broken heart.  Then they both disappear into the mound.  The priest prays there and in his dream the ghost of the man reappears and, rejoicing in the happiness that he and the woman have found, performs a dance.

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#754
Title	Nishiki-gi 錦木 (The Decorated Tree)
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
Date	1926-1930
Edition	unknown
Publisher	Seibi Shoten (or Seibi Shoin), Tokyo
Carver	Uchida Eikichi
Printer	Yoshida Takesaburō
Impression	excellent
Colors	excellent
Condition	good - several spots and minor imperfections; not backed
Genre	ukiyo-e
Miscellaneous
Format	oban yoko-e
H x W Paper	9 7/8 x 14 3/8 in. (25.1 x 36.5 cm)
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