August, Moon

Created in 1918 in ink and color on paper, this oban woodblock print presents the moon of August, when the full moon appears at its brightest and most celebrated in the Japanese calendar. The eighth month corresponds to the tsukimi, or moon-viewing, tradition, one of Japan's most important seasonal observances. Igawa Sengai likely places a beautiful woman in a nighttime setting illuminated by the full moon, a composition that unites the bijin-ga portrait tradition with the landscape genre. The moonlight would be rendered through careful printing: pale washes of silver or pale blue over the background, with the moon itself possibly formed by leaving an area of paper unprinted, allowing the white of the washi to glow against the surrounding dark tones. The 1918 date places this print in the Taisho era, when shin-hanga publishers were reviving traditional subjects with modern technical refinement.