A Day of Stars
by Gen Yamanaka
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Image courtesy of
- The Verne Collection
Description
A Day of Stars presents an unusual conceit — stellar forms rendered in daylight or twilight conditions rather than the conventional darkness of night. Yamanaka likely employs multiple woodblocks to build the sky's luminosity through layered bokashi gradations, allowing faint stellar points to emerge against a pale or deepening ground. The composition reflects his characteristic restraint: vast expanses of graduated tone punctuated by minimal celestial marks. The tension between the diurnal title and the nocturnal subject invites the viewer to reconsider the boundary between day and night as a continuous atmospheric state rather than a binary shift.
More Prints by Gen Yamanaka
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
Frequently Asked Questions
A Day of Stars was created by Gen Yamanaka (山中現).
A Day of Stars depicts night scenes.