About This Print

One of 120 prints (and one of fourteen diptychs) issued as part of the series Nōgaku hyakuban (One Hundred Prints of Noh), it depicts a scene from the play Tomonaga attributed to the playwright Kanze Motomasao (died 1432.)  This print was originally released by the publisher Matsuki Heikichi in the thirty-eighth 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.¹ 

"At first sight the two prints have nothing in common, for they deal with different scenes of this No play.  The left sheet shows the proprietess of the inn where Minamoto Tomonaga once committed suicide; in front of her a branch of a tree is lying on the ground and in the rear the outlines of a temple (the scene at Tomonaga’s grave).  The right sheet shows the night scene in the inn when Tomonaga’s ghost (without a mask) has appeared and is talking about the battle, his wounds and his suicide.  Next to him the proprietress of the inn."²

The Play - Tomonaga attributed to Kanze Motomasao

A tragic story about the death of the eldest son of Tomonaga of Yoshitomo Minamoto.  In the first scene a woman asks a priest to perform a requiem mass for sixteen-year old Tomonaga at his grave site.  In the second act Tomonaga’s spirit appears and recalls the events that led to his death.

¹ “The series Nogaku hyakuban (100 No plays) by Tsukioka Kogyo (1869-1927),” Claus-Peter Schulz, Andon 67, Society for Japanese Arts, p. 28.
² Ibid., p. 37

Print Details