Moon over Kiyosumi Garden

Among Hasui's several depictions of Kiyosumi-teien, this print likely presents a spring or early summer viewpoint, when the garden's azaleas and irises border the pond's edge. The moon's position in the composition — whether reflected in the water or appearing in the upper sky — determines the tonal balance of the print, which would have required careful registration across multiple key blocks and color blocks to achieve the subtle transitions characteristic of shin-hanga. Kiyosumi-teien's stones collected from Shikoku, Kyushu, and the Tōhoku region gave the garden an unusual geological variety; Hasui's compositions typically subordinate such detail to the dominant atmospheric effects of light on water. The oban format would allow adequate space to develop both sky and reflection, creating a vertical symmetry broken only by stone and tree forms at the garden's edge.