Rabbits under full moon

Rabbits under Full Moon is an Edo ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Hiroshige dating to around 1830 and held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Although Hiroshige is best known for the meisho-e and landscape print designs that defined his career, he also produced highly poetic depictions of small animals, birds, and seasonal motifs, of which this design is an evocative example. The print places two rabbits in the foreground beneath a large, luminous full moon, often set against autumn grasses such as susuki pampas grass. The pairing of rabbits with the moon draws on a long East Asian tradition in which the moon's surface is read as containing a hare pounding mochi or the elixir of immortality, an iconography reinforced by classical Japanese poetry around tsukimi moon viewing. Hiroshige uses a restrained palette and broad areas of softly graded color, allowing the disc of the moon and the alert posture of the rabbits to dominate the composition. The Art Institute of Chicago catalogs the work within its extensive Hiroshige holdings, where it complements the artist's bird-and-flower and landscape sheets by demonstrating his command of intimate, lyrical subjects. As a Utagawa Hiroshige design, the print reflects a recurring interest in nocturnes and moonlit moods that he applied across his career, from urban bridge scenes to remote countryside fields. For collectors of Edo ukiyo-e, Rabbits under Full Moon offers a compact yet richly symbolic example of his ability to blend folklore, poetry, and observed nature. The image continues to inform research on seasonal iconography, animal symbolism, and the broader range of Hiroshige's nineteenth-century woodblock work beyond his celebrated landscape series.