About This Print

One of 200 prints issued as part of the series Nōga taikan (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays), it depicts the Lady Tomoe, a female warrior who served Yoshinaka, in a scene from the play Tomoe by the playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443).

The Play - Tomoe

Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p.194.

A priest on his way to the capital stops to rest and finds a woman in tears before a nearby shrine.  She tells him that it is the spot where the warrior Kiso no Yoshinaka was killed and is now enshrined.  She then vanishes but the priest stops to pray at the shrine.  Tomoe, the warrior mistress of Yoshinaka, thereupon appears and tells of his death.  She asks the priest to pray for her to ease her spirit which is troubled because Yoshinaka would not allow her to die by his side in battle.