Moon over Lakeside (Kohan no tsuki)

Date:: December 1935
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:

Edition:

Published by Watanabe Shozaburo

Source:

Typical Price

A nocturnal water scene — one of Hasui's most technically sophisticated subjects, requiring the master printing of both moonlight effects and water reflections simultaneously. Gallery retail for Moon at Magome (a comparable night-water scene) is listed at $15,000 by Egenolf Gallery. Moonlight over Kanazawa Canal (postwar, 1950) sold for $2,300 at Bonhams London (2022) even in a later edition — earlier impressions command substantially more. 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): $2,000–$7,000
Postwar lifetime edition (J-seal): $800–$2,500
Posthumous/Heisei edition: $300–$800

Description

Moon over Lakeside (Kohan no tsuki) is a generic title that probably refers to one of the Fuji Five Lakes or a lake in the Kanto highlands — the lakeside location not named. This December 1935 print likely shows a moon reflected in a still lake surface with a dark shore in the foreground and mountains beyond, the standard formula for Hasui's lake moonlight compositions. The generic title suggests a print intended as a representative moon-and-lake type rather than a specific documented site.