American Style Steam Engine: Moon over Takana
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Ronin Gallery
- Image courtesy of
- Ronin Gallery
This print combines two of Kiyochika's most characteristic themes: Western technology and atmospheric nocturnal light. An American-style steam locomotive — the type imported by the Meiji government to operate the new national rail network — dominates the composition, its smokestack releasing a plume that merges with the night sky. The moon illuminates the scene in Kiyochika's signature kosen-ga manner, with graduated [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) washes creating halos of diffused light against deep indigo ground. Steam, smoke, and moonlight were recurring elements in Kiyochika's Meiji Tokyo series because they all share similar optical properties under his brush: luminous masses that dissolve solid forms. The print documents the early Meiji railroad era when steam trains were still a novelty reshaping the Japanese landscape.
Woodblock print
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)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
American Style Steam Engine: Moon over Takana was created by Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親).
American Style Steam Engine: Moon over Takana depicts night scenes.
