Moon at Ayashi (Ayashi no tsuki (Miyagi ken))

Date:: 1946
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:

Edition:

Published by Watanabe Shozaburo

Source:

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

Moon at Ayashi in Miyagi Prefecture — a rural hill community west of Sendai — shows a full moon rising over a quiet farming landscape in this 1946 postwar print. The Ayashi no tsuki composition puts the moon over the rural Miyagi interior rather than over famous scenic water, giving it a more domestic, lived quality than Hasui's famous moonlight compositions at celebrated sites. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations in the sky build from deep indigo at the zenith to a warm glow around the rising moon.