Hazy Moon at Ushimachi (Takanawa Ushimachi ryôgetsu kei), Meiji period, dated 1879

Dated 1879 and titled Takanawa Ushimachi ryôgetsu kei (Moonlit View at Ushimachi, Takanawa), this print belongs to Kiyochika's seminal series of Tokyo meisho-e (famous place pictures) produced during the late 1870s — the period in which he developed his distinctive kosen-ga style. Ushimachi, a district along the Takanawa waterfront in what is now Minato Ward, would have presented a view across Tokyo Bay, making it particularly suited to Kiyochika's interest in atmospheric light across water. The hazy moon — ryôgetsu literally suggesting a brilliant or clear moon — appears diffused through mist, its reflection broken across the water's surface in a graduated wash technique that draws on both Western chiaroscuro and the established meisho-e tradition of moon-viewing at coastal sites. The oban-format print deploys a restrained palette dominated by pale blues, greys, and the warm amber of lamplight, demonstrating the economy of means that distinguishes Kiyochika's atmospheric work from the more decorative approach of earlier ukiyo-e landscape.