Illustration of Noh Dance Scene 1900 - 1920

Okumura Masanobu probably used woodblocks to create this print of a Noh dance scene sometime in the 18th century. I love the flatness of the figures and the ambiguous space they occupy, like a stage set. The dancer on the left, with wild black hair and a geometric patterned robe, is such a striking figure. You can almost feel the weight of the ink, the pressure of the block on the paper. There's a tension in the air, a sense of anticipation as he faces the kneeling figure. I wonder what Masanobu was thinking as he carved those lines, what stories he wanted to tell, what kind of surface he wanted to make. He was part of a long, ongoing conversation with other artists and printmakers, each learning from and responding to the other. It’s a conversation that continues today, as artists like myself find inspiration in these older works, taking up the same questions of representation, meaning, and expression in our own way.