TSUKIOKA YOSHITOSHI (1839–1892) Title: 「月百姿 前田玄以」 — Maeda Gen'i composing a poem by moonlight Series: Tsuki Hyakushi (月百姿) — One Hundred Aspects of the Moon; Stevenson no. 43 Date: Meiji 19 (1886) — red date cartouche 御届明治十九年六月五日 printed in the left margin Publisher: Akiyama Buemon (秋山武右衛門) Format: Ōban tate-e — approx. 36 × 24 cm Technique: Woodblock print (mokuhanga), polychrome (nishiki-e) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Condition Excellent colour and impression, on clean paper. the blue-grey of the robes, the purple of the tassels and the orange of the hanging blind are all strong and evenly printed. The print carries an album backing. The publication block survives partially in the left margin: date cartouche, guild seals, the artist's own address seal, and the Akiyama Buemon / Kokkeidō. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Scene Gen'i is stretched out on the boards of a temple veranda in the blue-grey robes of a priest, one hand loosely holding an open fan, the other resting on a sheet of writing paper. He is not looking up. Above and behind him, Yoshitoshi assembles the whole apparatus of a moon-viewing evening — the rolled bamboo blind in orange and gold, purple silk tassels hanging heavily from their cords, a gnarled flowering tree against the sky, a candle stand burning at the right, the pale plank floor running back to the railing. Everything the picture needs is there except the thing it is named for. The poem in the cartouche explains it. Gen'i writes that he has always found a clouded sky dreary — and yet tonight's cloud is what teaches him how much the moon's light is worth. Yoshitoshi takes him at his word and paints the cloud. The viewer supplies the moon, which is exactly what the poem asks of anyone reading it. It is also a very economical piece of characterisation. This is a man who spent his life as a Buddhist cleric and a senior administrator, at ease, off duty, working out a thought on paper by candlelight rather than posing for it. The palette does the rest: cool grey-blue over almost the whole sheet, with the orange blind and the small flame the only warm notes. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Series — Yoshitoshi's Late Masterpiece Tsuki Hyakushi (One Hundred Aspects of the Moon), published by Akiyama Buemon between 1885 and 1892, is universally regarded as the crowning achievement of Yoshitoshi's career and one of the last great monuments of the ukiyo-e tradition. Across one hundred designs drawn from history, legend, literature, and — as here — the living festival culture of Edo, the moon serves as the unifying thread. This sheet, published in June 1886 during the strong early run of the series, preserves the full publication block in the margin: the red date cartouche and the Akiyama Buemon address. Yoshitoshi trained under Utagawa Kuniyoshi and is widely regarded as the last great master of ukiyo-e. Impressions of this design are held by the Library of Congress, the National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian), the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and other major collections.