Four Stars
by Gen Yamanaka
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Image courtesy of
- The Verne Collection
Description
Four Stars reduces Yamanaka's characteristic nocturnal subject to its most elemental form: a near-empty field of night sky containing precisely four celestial bodies. This severe compositional restraint places the print within a tradition of Japanese visual economy traceable through both Zen ink painting and modernist printmaking. The four stars likely occupy asymmetric positions governed by principles of ma — negative space as active compositional element. Technically, each star may be realized as a reserved area of white washi ground or printed from a separate block, surrounded by deep graduated tones built through successive bokashi applications across the sky plane.
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
Four Stars was created by Gen Yamanaka (山中現).
Four Stars depicts night scenes.