Tama-no-i, from the series "Pictures of No Performances (Nogaku Zue)" 1898

Tsukioka Kôgyo made this woodblock print, titled Tama-no-i, as part of his series "Pictures of No Performances," but we don't know exactly when. The series is concerned with the Japanese tradition of Noh theatre, which combines music, dance, and drama, and was especially popular among the elite. By the late 19th century, when Kôgyo was working, Noh was in danger of dying out, and the artist here depicts the finer details of the costumes with the intent of preserving interest in this art form. Consider how the figures are not shown on a stage, as they would have been traditionally seen, but rather against a blank background, almost like specimens in a display case. To understand the print fully, we would need to know how Kôgyo's work fits into the wider history of Japanese printmaking and theatre. We might ask: how did he and his contemporaries see their role in preserving cultural traditions and how might this have been received at the time?