Moonlight in Mii Temple

Moonlight in Mii Temple, dated 1952, presents the Onjoji Temple on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa — commonly called Mii-dera for the spring whose water was used in the purification of three successive emperors — in the exceptional light of moonlit night. The temple's famous bell (one of the three great bells of Japan, renowned for its tone) and its position overlooking Lake Biwa made it among the most evocative sacred sites associated with moonlight in the classical Japanese aesthetic tradition. Asano's nocturnal rendering captures the temple in the condition that classical poets and artists had celebrated for centuries.