Moon at Magome

Kawase Hasui

1883–1957

Moon at Magome, 1930, Showa period (1926–1989)

Portfolio/Series title: Twenty Views of Tokyo

Where object was made: Japan

Material/technique: color woodcut

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 363 x 239 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 14 5/16 x 9 7/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 387 x 270 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 15 1/4 x 10 5/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in

Credit line: Gift of Fina C. Ott

Accession number: 1979.0183

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Tradition and Modernity: Japanese Art of the Early Twentieth Century," Jan-2005, Hillary Pedersen
This single-hued nocturnal scene is a vision of an idyllic, timeless Japan, one that print publishers imagined as irresistable to foreigners. Hasui masterfully establishes a mood of time and place by accenting the deep indigo blue of nighttime with two strong notes of yellow in the moon and in the light of the farmhouse window. Such dreamlike night scenes constitute a group of Hasui’s best prints.

Archive Label date unknown:
This single-hued nocturne is an image of the idyllic, timeless Japan that Watanabe envisioned as irresistible to foreigners. Hasui masterfully establishes a mood of time and place by accenting the indigo blue of nighttime with two strong notes of yellow in the moon and in the light of the farmhouse window. Such dreamlike night scenes constitute a group of Hasui's best prints.

Archive Label date unknown:
A twentieth-century printmaker, Hasui traveled widely throughout Japan and developed an unerring eye for the picturesque which earned him the distinction of being called the true successor of the great landscapist Hiroshige. In this print, he used deep blue to portray the soft darkness, and employed gradations of indigo to delineate shapes and produce a sense of pictoral depth. A light from a nearby thatched-roof farmhouse shines out across the barren autumn fields, but the full moon, as it escapes from the clouds, compels our attention.