Kiyozumi Garden in Moonlight

Bokashi

Date:: January 1938
Medium:: Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Format:: Oban
Dimensions:: 35.4 × 23.2 cm
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo
Edition:: Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
Source:: Minneapolis Institute of Art

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. Pre-war lifetime editions bearing the Watanabe copyright seal (A through G types, 1926–1944) are the most desirable.

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

Description

Kiyozumi Garden in Moonlight, published in January 1938, depicts the Kiyosumi Teien — the Meiji-era landscaped garden in Fukagawa, Tokyo, built on the estate of a prominent timber merchant and later opened as a public garden — under nocturnal illumination, its central pond and carefully placed stones reflecting moonlight. Kiyosumi Garden's large central pond, ringed with prized stones brought from across Japan, and the surrounding traditional planting gave Hasui a garden subject combining intimate human-made landscape with the atmospheric effects of moonlight on still water. The January setting suggests winter moonlight over the snow-dusted or bare-branched garden.