Morning Moon 3
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Image courtesy of
- Asian Collection Internet Auction
Description
Morning Moon 3 is an early entry in the series and likely shows the compositional approach in a relatively direct form before the extended repetition of the sequence pushed the imagery toward greater abstraction. The composition may be more overtly landscape-like than later entries, with recognizable horizon elements grounding the lunar motif in a legible spatial setting. The moon itself — pale against a sky moving from night into dawn — is treated as a geometric form, its disc or crescent shape defined by incised contour and differentiated from the surrounding sky through tonal contrast rather than rendered glow. This early work would have established the parameters that subsequent prints would interrogate: the proportional relationship between the lunar form and the picture plane, the number and width of horizontal sky registers, and the color temperature of the dawn palette.






![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
