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- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Waseda University
- Image courtesy of
- Waseda University
Description
This untitled Kiyochika woodblock print likely depicts a scene from the rapidly changing cityscape of Meiji Tokyo, rendered through the artist's signature interplay of concentrated light sources and surrounding darkness. Kiyochika trained under the Western-style painter Goseda Horyu and absorbed lessons in tonal modeling and perspective that he then translated into the woodblock medium. The result, visible across his urban series of the 1870s and 1880s, is a pictorial language in which gas lamps, paper lanterns, bonfires, or reflected moonlight on water serve as the structural core of the composition. Printed in multiple color passes on [oban](/glossary/oban)-format [washi](/glossary/washi), the work exemplifies the technical ambition of his collaborations with Edo-trained block carvers.