Kanazawa in Moonlight, from the series Eight Views of Musashi Province (Buyō Kanazawa Hasshō Yakei)

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858)

7th month, 1857

Asian Art

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.

Medium

Ukiyo-e: polychrome woodblock print, triptych

Dimensions

sheet (Left): 14 3/4 × 9 1/2 in. (37.5 × 24.1 cm)
sheet (Middle): 14 11/16 × 9 7/16 in. (37.3 × 24 cm)
sheet (Right): 14 13/16 × 9 3/4 in. (37.7 × 24.8 cm)
matted: 30 × 40 in. (76.2 × 101.6 cm)

Credit Line

Hobart and Edward Small Moore Memorial Collection, Gift of Mrs. William H. Moore

Accession Number

1950.521

Geography
Culture
Period

Edo period (1615–1868)

Classification
Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

Provenance

Mrs. William H. Moore (1858–1955), New York, to 1950; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
Bibliography
  • Elise K. Kenney, ed., Handbook of the Collections: Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 309, ill.
Object copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

color woodcuts, landscapes (representations), seascapes, triptychs

Marks

Ichiryū-sai 壱立斎 (square, intaglio, centre left of L after the signature)\r\nPublisher’s mark: Okazawa-ya Taheiji 岡沢屋太平治 (lower right of each of the three prints)\r\nCensor’s seal mark: mi shichi 巳七 (7th month 1857, year of the snake) (round, relief, lower right of each of the three prints) & aratame censor seal 改 (round, relief, lower right of each of the three prints)\r\n

Inscriptions

Buyō Kanazawa Hasshō Yakei 武陽金澤八勝夜景 (upper right of R)

Signed

Buyō Kanazawa Hasshō Yakei
「武陽金沢八勝夜景」

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