Night street scene
by Koho Shoda
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database
by Koho Shoda
$200–$1,500. Snow and night scenes tend to command premium prices for this artist. Key value factors: Shoda Koho's elegant nature prints are beautifully produced and accessible to beginning collectors.
This oban woodblock print takes the viewer into a Japanese city street after dark, where artificial light from shops and lanterns creates pools of warmth in the surrounding darkness. Shoda's urban night scenes are less common than his landscapes, making this print a notable departure from his usual subjects. The street recedes into the distance, its buildings and signage rendered with enough specificity to evoke a real neighborhood without identifying a particular location. Pedestrian figures move through the light, their forms abbreviated to suggest movement and purpose without individual characterization. The interplay between the warm yellows of lamplight and the cool blues and blacks of the night sky structures the entire composition. Shoda treats the urban night as worthy of the same careful observation he brought to his moonlit lakes and rainy rivers.
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Night street scene was created by Koho Shoda (庄田耕峰).
Night street scene depicts urban scenes and night scenes.
