Moon Guiter
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Honolulu Museum of Art
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](/glossary/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.
Meiji period, dated October 10, 1896
Woodblock print in "ōban" format; ink and color on paper
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
![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
Moon Guiter was created by Toyohara Chikanobu (豊原周延).
Moon Guiter depicts moonlight and night scenes.