Wakano-ura in Moonlight
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database
- Image courtesy of
- Japanese Art Open Database
Description
Wakanoura is a bay south of Wakayama City historically celebrated in waka poetry for its scenic beauty — a meisho-e subject with ancient literary associations. A moonlight view (月光) of Wakanoura would render the bay's islands and inlets under nocturnal illumination, with the moon reflected across still or lightly rippled water. Yoshida's mastery of nocturnal atmospheric effects — built through layered translucent color blocks and graduated bokashi — is well suited to this subject. The compositional tradition for Wakanoura views typically includes pine-covered headlands framing an open expanse of water, providing both spatial depth and the melancholic beauty the site connotes in Japanese cultural memory.
More Prints by Hiroshi Yoshida
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
Wakano-ura in Moonlight was created by Hiroshi Yoshida (吉田博).
Wakano-ura in Moonlight depicts night scenes.