Meiji Emperor Attending the Noh Theater
ca. 1879
19th century
14 1/4 x 28 3/16 in. (362 x 716 mm)
Toyohara Chikanobu,
Japanese,
(1837–1912)
Object Type:
Prints
Creation Place:
Asia, Japan
Medium and Support:
color woodblock print on paper
Credit Line:
Carleton College Art Collection
Accession Number:
2010.038
From a series of prints chronicling the public life of the emperor during the 1870s and 1880s, this triptych shows the Meiji court in attendance at a Noh theater production. Noh, which played to the samurai elite during the Tokugawa (Edo) period, lost this class of patrons during the Meiji reforms. However, once Noh gained stature as a model "Japanese" art form as the nation opened up to the West, it gained new audiences among the rising cultural elites and visiting foreign dignitaries.