Adachigahara, from the series One Hundred Nō Plays

Object Details

• Artist

  Tsukioka Kogyo 月岡耕漁 (1869-1927)

• Publisher

  Matsuki Heikichi 松木平吉

• Label

  Like in many noh plays, in Adachigahara, a monk and his attendants chance upon a place where they seek lodging for the night. They find the old house of an even older woman, who invites them to sleep there. The house is eerie and is dominated by an ancient spinning wheel. As night arrives, the woman announces she will leave to gather firewood. She warns the party not to look into the house’s other room. While she is gone, an attendant’s curiosity gets the better of him, and he peeks into the room, only to discover a mountain of bodies in decay. The woman, who is a demon, returns and attacks the group, only to be quelled by the pleading prayers of the monk.

• Provenance

  To 2003

  Robert O. Muller

  From 2003

  National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution by gift from Robert O. Muller [1]

  Notes:

  [1] Accessioned on December 6, 2003. See Acquisition Consideration Form, in object file. From 2003-2023, the object was part of the National Museum of Asian Art’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection and on March 21, 2023, the work was internally transferred to the National Museum of Asian Art Collection.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Staging the Supernatural: Ghosts and the Theater in Japanese Prints (March 23 to October 6, 2024)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Robert O. Muller (1911-2003)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Robert O. Muller Collection

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1920s

• Name

  Muller, Robert O.

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Theater, Art, Robert O. Muller collection, Noh, Japanese Art, Taisho era (1912 - 1926)

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Prints