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 Semimaru by the playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443). This print was originally released by the publisher Matsuki Heikichi in the sixteenth installment 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.1For another depiction of this play by the artist see Nōgakuzue, Semimaru. For another depiction of this play see the print see Nōga taikan, Semimaru by Matsuno Sōfū (1899-1963). For another treatment of this story see Semimaru by Suga Tatehiko (1878-1963).
The Play - Semimaru by Zeami
Source: A Guide to No, P.G. O'Neill, Hinoki Shoten, 1929, p.154-155.Fourth Group
All schools
Characters:
Tsure - Prince Semimaru
Waki - a Court Official
Wak-tsure - two bearers
Kyōgen - Hakuga no Sanmmi
Shite - Princess Sakagami
On the order of the Emperor Daigo, a Court official takes Prince Semimaru, who has been blind since he was a child, to Ōsaka-yama and leaves him there with only his lute to comfort him. The Prince accepts his lot with resignation, feeling that his blindness is the result of some failure of his in a previous existence, and that the present apparent cruelty of his father is only due to a desire to help him gain a happier fate in a future life. Meanwhile, his sister Princess Sakagami has gone out of her mind and is now a wild-haired figure, wandering aimlessly from place to place. She comes one day to Ōsaka-yama and, attracted by the sound of Semimaru's lute, finds her brother again. For a while they forget their loneliness as they talk together and comfort each other, but then the Princess leaves him and continues her sad wanderings.
1 “The series Nogaku hyakuban (100 No plays) by Tsukioka Kogyo (1869-1927),” Claus-Peter Schulz, Andon 67, Society for Japanese Arts, p. 28.
1 “The series Nogaku hyakuban (100 No plays) by Tsukioka Kogyo (1869-1927),” Claus-Peter Schulz, Andon 67, Society for Japanese Arts, p. 28.
Noh performance of Semimaru by Kanze Tetsunojo February 1968
Copyright 1998-2006, Global Performing Arts Consortium
Copyright 1998-2006, Global Performing Arts Consortium
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #328 |
| Title | Semimaru 蝉丸 |
| Series | Nōgaku hyakuban 能楽百番 (One Hundred Prints of Noh or One Hundred Noh Plays) |
| Artist | Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927) |
| Signature | Kōgyo |
| Seal |  Kōgyo (?) seal no. 72, p. 172 in The Beauty of Silence: Nō and Nature Prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927), Robert Schaap & J. Thomas Rimer, Hotei Publishing, 2010. |
| Date | September 1924 |
| Edition | unknown |
| Publisher | Matsuki Heikichi (Daikokuya) |
| Carver | |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent - slightly trimmed; not backed |
| Genre | ukiyo-e |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | oban tate-e |
| H x W Paper | 14 3/4 x 10 in. (37.5 x 25.4 cm) |
| Collections This Print | Scripps College 2007.1.35; Art Institute of Chicago 1943.833.35 |
| Reference Literature | The Beauty of Silence: Nō and Nature Prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927), Robert Schaap & J. Thomas Rimer, Hotei Publishing, 2010, p. 84. |
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