Tranquil Night
- Date:
- 1981
- Medium:
- Etching
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Description
A tranquil night — shizukana yoru — captured in a 1981 etching where Tanaka applies his architectural sensibility to the particular quality of after-dark silence in a Japanese village or temple district. Night transforms familiar subjects: moonlight or lamplight catches on roof tiles and stone walls at angles unavailable by day, and the absence of daytime activity empties the lanes and courtyards of human presence. The result is an architecture experienced as pure form, stripped of its social function.
More Prints by Tanaka Ryohei
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)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Tranquil Night was created by Tanaka Ryohei (田中良平) in 1981.
Tranquil Night uses Etching, on etching.
Tranquil Night depicts night scenes.