Moonlight of Taj Mahal, No. 4 (Tsukiyo no Taji Maharu, dai yon)

The fourth in Yoshida's Taj Mahal series, this moonlit view captures the great Mughal mausoleum as it appears under a full moon — an experience famously more affecting than the daylight version, the white marble luminous against the night sky, its reflection wavering in the long reflecting pool. Yoshida visited Agra during his 1931 India travels and was among the very few Japanese artists to depict the Taj Mahal from direct observation rather than photographic sources. This oban-format print is among the most technically ambitious of the series, the night sky requiring multiple gradation blocks to achieve the transition from deep blue at the zenith to warm atmospheric haze near the horizon, all without losing the glowing marble whiteness of the building itself.