About This Print

Number 53* of 200 prints issued as part of the series Nōga taikan (Encyclopedia of Noh Plays) depicting a scene from the play Unrin'in often attributed to the playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) in which the Ariwara no Narihara appears in Kimmitsu's dream dancing a jonomai.  This print still maintains its semi-transparent cover sheet providing information on the play and its characters.


* number appears in the lower right hand of the cover sheet.

The Play - Unrin'in (Unrin Temple) by Zeami

Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p. 209-210.
Characters
Act 1: waki - Ashiya no Kimmitsu; waki-tsure - two retainers; shite - an old woman; kyōgen - a local person
Act 2: nochi-shite - Ariwara no Narihara

All his life Kimmitsu has loved a work called the Ise Mongatari which deals with incidents in the life of Ariwara no Narihira.  Following a dream he has had, he goes up to the capital to visit the Unrin-in palace [temple], and there meets a woman with whom he talks about the cherries in blossom there and explains what has brought him to the place.  In the second part of the play Narihira himself appears and dances.

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#795
Title	Unrin'in 雲林院 (Unrin Temple)
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, seal no. 13, 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 #53
Format	oban yoko-e
H x W Paper	10 x 14 5/8 in. (25.4 x 37.1 cm)
Collections This Print	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2011.1721
Reference Literature