Moonrise at Nezu Gongen shrine

Moonrise at Nezu Gongen Shrine portrays the precincts of Nezu Jinja, one of Tokyo's older Shinto sites in the Bunkyo ward, with the moon ascending behind shrine buildings or torii. The subject belongs to Kasamatsu's nocturnes, a category in which he was particularly accomplished — printers achieve the deep blacks of night through repeated impressions of sumi mixed with indigo, while the moon is typically reserved as unprinted washi, its glow heightened by the surrounding bokashi. Lantern light, stone steps, and the silhouettes of pine or cryptomeria complete the spatial register. The scene draws on the Edo tradition of meisho-e devoted to Tokyo's shrines and temples, updated with the shin-hanga preference for atmospheric specificity over cataloguing. Kasamatsu's shrine and temple subjects, including views of Nezu, Sensoji, and Zojoji, form a sustained record of the religious topography of his native Tokyo, where he was born in Asakusa in 1898 and remained for most of his life.