Full Moon Over Matsuyama Castle — 松山城各月

Matsuyama Castle (松山城) crowns Mount Katsuyama on the island of Shikoku in Ehime Prefecture. Unlike many Japanese castles reconstructed in the modern era, Matsuyama Castle retains original Edo-period structures, giving it a historical gravity that appealed to shin-hanga's nostalgic sensibility. Hasui's composition likely places the three-tiered tenshu keep in silhouette or near-silhouette against a pale moon and deep sky, the castle's stone ramparts rising from the wooded mountain slope. The title's Japanese reading (松山城各月) confirms the lunar subject. Night castle compositions required the printer to balance the near-black stone and tile against the luminous sky — a contrast achieved through deep indigo and black blocks for the architecture and graduated bokashi for the moonlit atmosphere surrounding the keep.