歌川広重 「武陽金澤八勝夜景」 浮世絵錦絵 三枚綴り　江戸時代

This serene triptych is one of Utagawa Hiroshige’s last masterpieces, and like his other late works it draws its power from controlled use of color, grand scale, and sensitive treatment of detail. Hiroshige captures a night vista in only a few colors: turquoise for the water and sky, white for the full moon studded with a flock of tiny geese, and pink for the horizon over the distant mountains. The rest of the composition—the land; the long, hazy horizon; and the shore—consists of shades of black. In its subject, the print follows the Japanese tradition of reinterpreting traditional Chinese themes; the depiction of Kanazawa Bay, southwest of Tokyo, alludes to the Chinese theme of eight shoreline scenes from the Xiao and Xiang regions in Hunan Province in China.