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 Koi no Omoni by the playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443).

The Play - Koi no Omoni

Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 83-84.

A Court official announces that as an old gardener in the palace has fallen in love with a Court lady, she has had a heavy weight wrapped in brocade so that it seems light, and has said that if the gardener carries it many times around the grounds she will then let him see her again.  The lady hopes that, by this means, the gardener will be led to forget her when he finds the burden too heavy to carry, but instead he is filled with a bitterness at her cruelty in setting him such as impossible task.  Having failed to move the weight, he leaves with a crazed air and shortly afterwards a servant reports that he has drowned himself in the lake in the grounds.  The official tells the lady what has happened and asks her to go to look at his body in the hope that the old man's bitterness of spirit will then be relieved.  But the lady is unable to rise, being held down, it seems, by a weight such as that which the gardener has tried to lift.  His angry ghost then appears and reviles the lady for her heartlessness, but gradually its anger abates until in the end it forgives her and promises to protect her from all harm.

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#215
Title	Koi no Omoni 恋重荷 (The Burden of Love)
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	1925-1930
Edition	unknown
Publisher	Seibi Shoten (or Seibi Shoin), Tokyo
Carver	Uchida Eikichi
Printer	Yoshida Takesaburō
Impression	excellent
Colors	excellent
Condition	good - trimmed; 1/8" paper missing lower right corner; not backed
Genre	ukiyo-e
Miscellaneous
Format	oban yoko-e
H x W Paper	10 x 13 7/8 in. (25.4 x 35.2 cm)
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