Moon over Izura (Izura no tsuki)

Date:: 1952
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo

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

Izura on the Ibaraki coast facing the Pacific is a small fishing settlement where rocky headlands drop to a cove, and a full moon rising over the sea illuminated the dark water and rock in this 1952 print. The Izura no tsuki composition places the moon above the horizon of the Pacific, its reflection a broken, shimmering path across the swell. The late-career moonlit coastal scene shows Hasui's sustained mastery of the moonlight palette, here applied to a rugged Pacific headland.