Ox Cart at Night
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database
Description
A nighttime composition by Nakajima Kiyoshi depicting an ox cart — the fundamental vehicle of the pre-modern Japanese countryside, moving goods and people along rural roads at the slow pace of agricultural life. The nighttime setting removes the ordinary scene from the familiar diurnal context, transforming the mundane transportation of goods into something more mysterious and atmospheric. Nakajima's characteristic sensitivity to light and atmosphere serves a night scene well: the quality of moonlight or lamplight on the ox's back, the shadows cast by the cart wheels, the darkness of the rural road stretching away into an invisible distance.
More Prints by Nakajima Kiyoshi
More Night Scenes Prints
Evening in East Africa
Woodblock print
Evening Shower at Teradomari (Teradomari no yau), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishu)"
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
![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](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
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)"
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
Frequently Asked Questions
Ox Cart at Night was created by Nakajima Kiyoshi (中島潔).
Ox Cart at Night depicts night scenes and animals.