Moon Guiter
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Honolulu Museum of Art
Description
A print depicting a woman playing a musical instrument under moonlight — the moon guitar or moon lute (gekkin, a round-bodied stringed instrument introduced from China) creating a nocturnal composition combining feminine beauty, musical refinement, and the aesthetic power of moonrise. The combination of bijin, instrument, and moon was a conventional grouping in Japanese bijin-ga, each element enriching the others: the woman's beauty intensified by the music, the music elevated by the moonlight, the moonlight personalized by the human figure beneath it.
More Prints by Toyohara Chikanobu
More Moonlight Prints
![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
Matsushima in Moonlight (Tsuki no Matsushima)
1919
Color woodblock print
Kiyozumi Garden in Moonlight
January 1938
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Frequently Asked Questions
Moon Guiter was created by Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延).
Moon Guiter depicts moonlight and night scenes.