Pine Tree and Full Moon

Pine Tree and Full Moon is a color woodblock print by Taki Katei, dated about 1880-1890, held by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (accession RP-P-1961-116) as part of the thirty-nine-print octagonal album donated to the museum in 1961. The print measures 22.3 by 28.7 cm and pairs the pine tree (matsu) — the standard East Asian symbol of longevity and evergreen virtue — with the full moon, a motif heavily freighted in Japanese poetry and painting with autumnal meaning, with the celebrated Tang-dynasty poetry of Li Bai, and with the seasonal festival of tsukimi (moon-viewing). The composition belongs to the long tradition of "pine and moon" (shōgetsu) imagery that runs through the Sino-Japanese painting and poetry record, and Katei's treatment compresses the standard hanging-scroll vocabulary into the small octagonal print format that gives the Rijksmuseum album its distinctive character. The print is a representative example of how a leading Meiji-period nanga painter could supply auspicious and culturally allusive imagery for the deluxe collector's album trade alongside his formal practice as an Imperial Household Artist.