One Hundred Aspects of the Moon
The Moon at Ishiyama — Murasaki Shikibu
石山月 · Ishiyama no tsuki
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1889
What it is
Murasaki Shikibu sits at a writing desk on the veranda of Ishiyama-dera, gazing out over Lake Biwa in moonlight — the night, tradition says, The Tale of Genji began.
Why it matters
Literature’s founding legend given its portrait: the world’s first great novel starting not with a pen-stroke but with a long look at moonlight on water.
What to notice
The desk is ready and untouched; Yoshitoshi draws the moment before writing, when the whole of Genji is still just the moon on Lake Biwa.
"The world’s first novel began as moonlight on a lake."
The record
- Artist
- Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年 (1839–1892)
- Series
- One Hundred Aspects of the Moon
- Date
- 1889
- Publisher
- Akiyama Buemon
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Art Institute of Chicago · 1939.1589
Impression note. A scholar’s nocturne in quiet tones: fine impressions grade the lake-and-sky distance softly behind the temple veranda and keep the layered edges of her Heian court robes distinct — a dozen close tones that muddy in tired printings. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
From the same series
One Hundred Aspects of the MoonThe Cry of the FoxTsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1886 · from $69.00
One Hundred Aspects of the MoonMusashi Plain MoonTsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1892 · from $69.00
One Hundred Aspects of the MoonChang’e Flees to the MoonTsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1885
One Hundred Aspects of the MoonMoon above the Sea at Daimotsu Bay — BenkeiTsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1886The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.