Mid-Autumn Moon Viewing by Kitagawa Utamaro — Japanese Woodblock print

Mid-Autumn Moon Viewing

by Kitagawa Utamaro

Moonlight Night Scenes Autumn Foliage

Medium:: Woodblock print
Source:: AGGV
Image courtesy of: AGGV

Description

Tsukimi, the mid-autumn moon-viewing festival observed on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, provided one of the traditional calendar occasions that structured bijin-ga series around seasonal ceremony. This print likely depicts one or more women engaged in moon-viewing — seated near a veranda or window, perhaps arranging an offering of tsukimi dango and susuki grasses beneath a full moon. The motifs of moonlight and autumn foliage identified in the subject record are among the most conventionally loaded in Japanese visual culture, invoking classical poetry traditions reaching back to the Man'yôshû. Utamaro would have rendered the moonlit scene through careful bokashi gradation of the sky, contrasting cool silver-grey grounds against the warm tones of lamplight and autumn textile patterns.

More Prints by Kitagawa Utamaro

A Low Class Prostitute (Gun [teppo]), from the series “Five Shades of Ink in the Northern Quarter" ("Hokkoku goshiki-zumi") by Kitagawa Utamaro

A Low Class Prostitute (Gun [teppo]), from the series “Five Shades of Ink in the Northern Quarter" ("Hokkoku goshiki-zumi")

c. 1794/95

Color woodblock print; oban

Woman Holding a Fan (from the series Ten Aspects of the Physiognomy of Women) by Kitagawa Utamaro

Woman Holding a Fan (from the series Ten Aspects of the Physiognomy of Women)

c. 1793

color woodblock print

Akashi of the Tamaya, from the series Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara (Seiro nana Komachi) (Tamaya uchi Akashi, Uraji, Shimano) by Kitagawa Utamaro

Akashi of the Tamaya, from the series Seven Komachis of Yoshiwara (Seiro nana Komachi) (Tamaya uchi Akashi, Uraji, Shimano)

Woodblock print

Hour of the Tiger (Tora no koku = 4 AM) from the series Twelve Hours in Yoshiwara (Seirô jûni toki tsuzuki), Late Edo period, circa 1794 by Kitagawa Utamaro

Hour of the Tiger (Tora no koku = 4 AM) from the series Twelve Hours in Yoshiwara (Seirô jûni toki tsuzuki), Late Edo period, circa 1794

Woodblock print

More Moonlight Prints

Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui

Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)"

1947

Color woodblock print; oban

Evening Moon at Nakanoshima, Sapporo (Sapporo Nakanoshima no yuzuki), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)" by Kawase Hasui

Evening Moon at Nakanoshima, Sapporo (Sapporo Nakanoshima no yuzuki), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)"

March 1933

Color woodblock print; oban

Matsushima in Moonlight (Tsuki no Matsushima) by Kawase Hasui

Matsushima in Moonlight (Tsuki no Matsushima)

1919

Color woodblock print

Kiyozumi Garden in Moonlight by Kawase Hasui

Kiyozumi Garden in Moonlight

January 1938

Woodblock print, ink and color on paper

Frequently Asked Questions

Mid-Autumn Moon Viewing was created by Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿).

Mid-Autumn Moon Viewing depicts moonlight, night scenes, and autumn foliage.