The Night Visit

Date:: 1959
Medium:: Woodblock print
Edition:: Self-printed
Source:: Art of Japan

Typical Price

Rare early signed work in excellent condition: $5,000–$25,000
Fine signed mid-century print: $2,000–$8,000
Good condition signed example: $500–$2,500

Description

"The Night Visit" from 1959 captures a figure arriving — or departing — in the darkness: a nocturnal visitation with all the narrative ambiguity the genre carries in Japanese art and literature. The night visit is a subject with deep roots in Japanese love poetry and narrative, the lover arriving in secret after dark being one of the central motifs of the Heian classical tradition. Munakata's rendering would carry neither the delicacy of that tradition nor the coyness of its imagery, but the direct, urgent energy of his mature carving style applied to a subject of romantic and perhaps spiritual tension.

More Prints by Shiko Munakata

Flying Over the Mountains (Yamagoe), from the series "The Tale of the Auklet (Uto Hanga-kan)"

1960

Woodblock print

Bodhisattva Manjusri (Monju bosatsu no saku), from the series Ten Great Disciples of the Buddha Sakyamuni (Shaka jûdai deshi), Shôwa period, undated (block carved 1948)

Shôwa period, 1926-1989

Woodblock print

Ragora (Rahula), from the series "Two Bodhisattva and Ten Great Disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni (Nibosatsu Shaka judai deshi)"

1939-68

Woodblock print

Ubari (Upali), from the series "Two Bodhisattva and Ten Great Disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni (Nibosatsu Shaka judai deshi)"

1939 (printed 1955)

Woodblock print

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)"

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

Featured in Collections

Curated cross-cuts that include this print.

Sōsaku-Hanga: The Creative-Print Movement

Frequently Asked Questions

The Night Visit was created by Shiko Munakata (棟方志功) in 1959.

The Night Visit depicts night scenes.