Kotondo is best known for bijin-ga, but his complete oeuvre includes actor prints and other figure subjects. His small corpus of only 21 designs ensures that all authenticated period impressions carry collector interest and scarcity premiums.
From the 1980 posthumous edition "12 Aspects of Women," this print depicts a woman in moonlight — the moon (tsuki) a recurring presence in Kotondo's seasonal imagery, associated in Japanese aesthetics with contemplation and the passage of time. Cool bokashi gradations render the lunar atmosphere, the background dissolving into the particular blue-grey of a moonlit night. The woman is illuminated from above, her figure half in silver light and half in the deeper shadow of the night.
![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)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
1919
Color woodblock print
January 1938
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Moon - 月 was created by Torii Kotondo (鳥居言人) in 1980.
Moon - 月 uses Bokashi, on woodblock print.
Moon - 月 was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1980).
Moon - 月 depicts moonlight and night scenes.
