Full Moon over Matsuyama Castle (Matsuyamajo meigetsu)

Date:: December 1953
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo
Edition:: Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Typical Price

Night views with moonlight and lantern effects carry a 20–30% premium over comparable daytime scenes. The dramatic tonal contrasts required for nocturnal subjects make impression quality especially important — fine examples from pre-war printings show a depth of color that later editions rarely match. Prints with well-preserved black areas and accurate moonlight bokashi command the highest prices. Postwar lifetime editions (1946–1957) bearing the small 6mm J-seal represent authentic lifetime impressions but from the artist's final decade.

Pre-war lifetime edition (Watanabe seal): $1,500–$5,000
Postwar lifetime edition (J-seal): $600–$2,000
Posthumous/Heisei edition: $250–$700

Description

Full Moon over Matsuyama Castle, published in December 1953, depicts the castle of Matsuyama on Shikoku Island — the largest and best-preserved original castle keep in western Japan — under the light of a full moon, its three-tiered white keep rising from the wooded summit of Mount Katsuyama above the city. The meigetsu (harvest moon) over a hilltop castle is among the most classical compositions in Japanese landscape imagery, and Hasui's late treatment combines this traditional subject with his mature bokashi technique for depicting moonlit sky. The December date suggests a cold, clear winter moon rather than the autumnal harvest-moon associations of the meigetsu in poetry.