Tree under the moon

Tree Under the Moon belongs to the central thread of Joichi Hoshi's mature output, in which a single tree is set against a celestial ground — moon, stars, or open sky. The composition typical of these prints places the tree's silhouette near the lower or central register, with branches reaching into a darker upper field where a disc of moon hangs as a flat color shape. Hoshi achieved the lunar disc through clean, hard-edged registration, often reserving an unprinted area of the washi or printing it in a pale metallic pigment so that it reads against the surrounding ink. The bark and branches were customarily worked with karazuri embossing, raising the trunk into shallow relief that catches light independently of the printed color. Produced in the sosaku-hanga manner, every block was cut and pulled by Hoshi himself. Within his late catalog, the moon-and-tree subject became a quiet, repeated meditation rather than a single statement, each impression varying in palette and atmospheric weight.