Moon Gate

Moon Gate depicts the circular opening characteristic of Chinese garden walls — an architectural motif Lum encountered repeatedly during her years living and working in Beijing from the 1920s onward. The composition likely centers on the perfect circle of the gate as a framing device, with a figure or garden vista visible through the aperture, exploiting the device's natural use as a window onto another scene. Such a subject suits the mokuhanga technique well: the strong circular outline can be carried by a single keyblock cut, while bokashi gradation across the interior reads as moonlight or atmospheric depth. Lum often paired these architectural compositions with nocturnal palettes — deep indigos, soft greys, and luminous whites — printed in carefully registered impressions on dampened washi. Moon Gate is representative of the Chinese-subject work that defined her late career, distinguishing her from American contemporaries who confined themselves to Japanese idioms. The print reflects her sustained interest in the spaces and rituals of Chinese domestic life rather than the imagined Asia common in Western japonisme.