Snow and night scenes traditionally command higher prices. Key value factors: Edition order (first Watanabe/Doi printing vs. posthumous reprints) is crucial. Snow scenes, night views, and bijin-ga typically command premiums. Publisher seals and artist signatures authenticate first editions.
Moonlight floods a beach in this nocturnal woodblock print, the first of two variant impressions Arai created of this subject. The moon has been a dominant motif in Japanese art since the Heian period, carrying associations of beauty, impermanence, and poetic melancholy. Here, lunar light transforms an ordinary stretch of shoreline into something luminous, the sand reflecting pale tones while the water absorbs deeper blues. Arai achieves this effect through controlled gradation — the [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) technique of blending ink on the woodblock before printing — which produces the smooth tonal transitions essential to convincing moonlit scenes. The beach setting, stripped of human presence, emphasizes the solitary grandeur of the natural world under night sky.
1940
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Boshu Taikai
1925
Color woodblock print; oban
September 1931
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Moonlit Beach Scene- V1 was created by Yoshimune Arai (荒井芳宗).
Moonlit Beach Scene- V1 depicts seascapes, moonlight, and night scenes.
