One Hundred Aspects of the Moon
Musashi Plain Moon
むさしのの月 · Musashino no tsuki
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1892
What it is
A lone fox on the vast grass plain of Musashi, pausing among the autumn grasses under the full moon.
Why it matters
Designed in the last year of Yoshitoshi’s life, near the series’ end: after ninety-odd moons of emperors, poets, and ghosts, one of the quietest sheets gives the moon to an animal and an empty plain.
What to notice
Almost nothing happens, deliberately — plain, grass, fox, moon. The fox is the old shapeshifter of Japanese folklore caught off duty, being only a fox.
"The plain is empty. The fox and the moon have it to themselves."
The record
- Artist
- Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年 (1839–1892)
- Series
- One Hundred Aspects of the Moon
- Date
- 1892
- Publisher
- Akiyama Buemon
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons · Tsukioka Yoshitoshi - The moon on Musashi Plain (Musashino no tsuki) - from the series 'One hundred aspects of the moon (T... - Google Art Project.jpg
Impression note. Fine impressions keep the fox’s fur a warm, clean tone against the great pale emptiness of the plain, with the autumn grasses’ fine lines and the moon’s disc printed evenly — an expanse this bare shows every flaw of a tired block. 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 MoonChang’e Flees to the MoonTsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1885
One Hundred Aspects of the MoonMoon above the Sea at Daimotsu Bay — BenkeiTsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1886
One Hundred Aspects of the MoonThe Moon at Ishiyama — Murasaki ShikibuTsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1889The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.