About This Print

One of 120 prints issued as part of the series Nōgaku hyakuban (One Hundred Prints of Noh), it depicts a scene from the play Atagokūya by the playwright Kanze Nobumitsu (1450-1516).  This print is the left half of the diptych pictured below.  This print was originally released by the publisher Matsuki Heikichi in the thirty-sixthinstallment of prints in this series.  This series' prints were offered in monthly installments consisting of three prints packaged in an envelope with additional descriptive information.¹ 

The Play - Atagokūya by Kanze

Source: Global Performing Arts Database http://www.glopad.org/pi/ja/record/piece/1000283 Copyright 1998-2006, Global Performing Arts Consortium
The holy monk Kūya Shōnin (waki) climbs Mount Atago in Yamashiro Province to recite the holy texts.  The mountain's Dragon God (ryūjin, shite) appears in guise of an old man, rōō.  He asks for a relic of the Buddha (busshari).  Three times every day Dragon Gods suffer pain because of the "Three Heats" (sannetsu).  He asks for the bone of the Buddha that forms the jiku or roller of the sutra scroll, one of eight received from the Engi Emperor.  Kūya opens the the scroll and is astonished to find in the roller a crystal box containing the blue bones of the Buddha. To the amazement of his companions, he gives the relics to the man, who thanks him and offer to fulfill any wish.  Kūya asks for him to create an inexhaustible spring on the mountain top so that water does not need to be carried up from the valley far below. The old man vows to do this in three days, when he will appear in his real form.  In the latter half of the play he returns as Dragon King (ryōō) and, as promised, creates a spring from which water gushes in waves down the mountain.
(Summary by M. Watson)

¹“The series Nogaku hyakuban (100 No plays) by Tsukioka Kogyo (1869-1927),” Claus-Peter Schulz, Andon 67, Society for Japanese Arts, p. 28.

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