Tsukioka Kôgyo
Japanese, 1869-1927
Nightbird (Nue) from the series "One Hundred Noh Plays", 1922-1925
color woodblock print
15 x 10 1/8 in.
SBMA, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Roland A. Way
1991.147.5.48
COMMENTS
Tsukioka Kôgyo, born Hanyû Sadanosuke, was the son of innkeepers in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. When he was fifteen years old, his mother married Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, a distinguished master of ukiyo-e printmaking. From his famous stepfather, the young Kôgyo received some of his earliest training in printmaking and painting as well as a new name, Tsukioka. Although their styles and subject matter were different, Kôgyo acquired both a knowledge of print design and an enthusiasm for Noh theater from his stepfather, who had a lifelong fascination with Noh.
The heyday of Japanese prints was during the Edo period (1603-1868) when Japan was ruled by warlords known as Shoguns. Ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world," immortalized aspects of life and entertainments enjoyed by the newly prosperous merchant classes-courtesans, landscape and city views, and Kabuki actors, all of which were depicted in brightly colored, mass-produced woodblock prints. Kabuki was a form of popular theater, featuring stories of gallant samurai and vengeful ghosts.
In this period, the shogun and many of his subordinate lords had subsidized noh as an important part of late feudal cultural life. In 1868, with the fall of the shogun and restoration of the emperor to power, actors lost their guaranteed income and had to look for other ways to support themselves. The solution to their problem came in two ways. First, the Meiji government decided to use noh as its official entertainment for visiting foreign dignitaries. Much as Japanese officials, when they went to Europe, were taken to the opera, so Western leaders, beginning with ex-president Ulysses S. Grant in 1879, were taken to see noh. Second, many of the new elite, especially merchants who had been treated as second-class citizens in the feudal era, took up the study of noh as amateurs.
Noh theater-its name derives from the Japanese word nô, meaning "talent" or "skill"-dates from the fourteenth century, when acting troupes traveled to temples, shrines, and festivals. By mid-century, troupe leader Kan'ami Kiyotsugu (1333-1383) and his son Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1441), under the patronage of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, had created what is now recognized as noh out of various theatrical traditions. Zeami wrote at least twenty plays, most of which continue to be performed today. He also wrote many treatises about noh, which since they were discovered in the early twentieth century, have been studied by noh actors and scholars alike.
Kôgyo began producing his theater woodblock prints in 1897, with Nôgakuzue (Illustrations of Noh) an extensive series of 261 images in the horizontal ôban (folio) format. In a second series, Nôgaku hyakuban (One Hundred Prints of the Noh), created between 1922 and 1926, he designed a further 120 prints in the vertical format. At the time of his death in 1927, Kôgyo was working on still another series, Nôga taikan (A Great Collection of Noh Pictures), featuring 200 prints, which were completed by Matsuno Sôfû after Kôgyo's death.
While Kabuki prints idolized popular actors in their most famous roles, Kôgyo's Noh prints often focus on the main character and his sumptuous costume by surrounding it by white space. Kôgyo was masterful at using compositional accents, such as a vase of flowers or a glimpse of text, to suggest an important point of the story to knowledgeable viewers.
Kôgyo's Noh prints included impressive painterly effects and beautifully applied inks in gradated printings, which were produced with extreme care, and the use of metallic embellishment. In addition to his Noh prints, Kôgyo created a number of fine woodcuts dealing with natural history, such as his kachô-e, or bird and flower prints, and was an accomplished painter of both Noh and nature subjects.
Yoshitoshi, and to a much greater degree his stepson Kôgyo, and then Kôgyo's daughter Gyokusei and disciple Matsuno Sôfû, were key players in the modern popularization of Noh. Kôgyo produced over three dozen Noh paintings, created three sets of prints (almost 600 individual prints) of Noh and other theater subjects, did over one hundred illustrations of Noh and half as many non-Noh illustrations for Japan's first graphic magazine, Fûzoku gahô. He also produced small postcard prints to be sold by the Noh publishing house, Wan'ya.
- The Prints of Tsukioka Kôgyo, Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburg, February 3, 2007
http://www.thefrickpittsburgh.org/collection_exhibitions/pastexhibitions/80.php
SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS
KŌGYO (1869-1927) was a painter and master print designer (of Japan) at the turn of the 20th century, when Japanese society underwent rapid changes in an attempt to modernize. He is best known for creating hundreds of woodblock prints depicting Noh plays, which is a highly stylized, classical form of performance that incorporates dance, singing, and mime dating back to the 14th century. Kōgyo developed an interest in Noh theater from his stepfather, the famed Meiji artist Tsukioka YOSHITOSHI (1839-92) from whom he also received his family name and training in art.
“One Hundred Noh Plays” was Kōgyo's final series, created in 1922 and completed in 1926 shortly before his death. It defines Kōgyo’s artistic genius in creating a new vision of actors within the Japanese print tradition. Through the compelling portrayal of main characters, Kōgyo captures the refined beauty embodied in Noh preformance: its spare stage, sumptuous costumes, masked actors, and emotionally-charged plots drawn from legends, history and classical literature.
Kōgyo’s prolific production of Noh prints and paintings was integral to the revival of Noh theater at a time when many traditional arts were challenged by new artistic expressions from the West. As Noh gained recognition as one of Japan’s iconic cultural traditions, at home and abroad, Kōgyo’s elegant images of Noh actors became his artistic legacy and have profoundly influenced the way in which Noh is depicted even today.
Nightbird (Nue)
A nue monster was said to have afflicted a twelfth-century emperor: “…His Majesty had a fear night after night… The pain would come upon him… deep black clouds, in one huge mass, arose, and, hovering above the royal palace, they covered all; without fail, His Majesty would be gripped by fear.” The brave warrior Minamoto no Yorimasa shot into the black clouds and brought down the nue monster. In this play, the slaying of the nue is narrated by the ghost of the monster itself. Kōgyo has portrayed the creature in the customary black wig, indigo costume, and angular, gold-eyed ayakashi mask (a mask used to represent revengeful wraiths or violent gods). Through nocturnal hues and a masterful painterly technique, Kōgyo has provided a true sense of the ominous, hovering black clouds that so distressed the Emperor.
- Asian Gallery Wall Text, 2014