Moon over Kiyosumi Garden (Tsuki no Kiyosumien)

Date:: 1938
Medium:: Color woodblock print; oban
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. 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

Moon over Kiyosumi Garden, published in 1938, depicts the Kiyosumien — the Meiji-era landscape garden in Fukagawa, Tokyo — under full moonlight, the garden's large central pond catching the moon's reflection while the carefully arranged stones, stone lanterns, and overhanging trees create the layered compositional depth typical of a Japanese stroll garden at night. The 1938 full-moon garden subject builds on the January 1938 moonlight composition of the same site in this dataset, suggesting Hasui visited and depicted the Kiyosumi garden across multiple seasons and lighting conditions. The garden's stones — brought from famous landscape sites across Japan — take on a silvery, sculptural quality in moonlight.