Night Lights (Yoru no kanjo)
by Ansei Uchima
- Date:
- 1957
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Description
Night Lights (Yoru no kanjo) is a 1957 color woodblock print whose Japanese subtitle translates as "emotions of the night" or "nighttime feelings" — a more evocative reading than the English title suggests. Where "Night Lights" implies a visual subject (illumination against darkness), "Yoru no kanjo" points toward an interior, emotional experience of nighttime. Uchima bridges these two readings through abstract forms that function simultaneously as observed light phenomena (streetlamps, windows, reflections on wet pavement) and as emotional states (warmth against cold, presence against absence, wakefulness against the surrounding sleep of the city).
More Prints by Ansei Uchima
More Night Scenes Prints
Evening in East Africa
Woodblock print
Evening Shower at Teradomari (Teradomari no yau), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishu)"
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
![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)
Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)"
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
Evening Moon at Nakanoshima, Sapporo (Sapporo Nakanoshima no yuzuki), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)"
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Night Lights (Yoru no kanjo) was created by Ansei Uchima (内間安瑆) in 1957.
Night Lights (Yoru no kanjo) depicts night scenes.