Frost fills the air and the autumn air is still/lines of returning geese cross the moon in the third hour-Kenshin, from the series Twelve Aspects of the Moon
1885/92
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink and colors on silk
Dimensions
105.5 × 40.7 cm (41 9/16 × 16 in.)
Classification
hanging scroll
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
212358
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This hanging scroll portrays the shogun lord Uesugi no Terutora (known as Kenshin) as he sits in his military encampment beside a banquet for his generals. He is enjoying a moment of quiet before the next day’s battle against his longtime rival and, struck by the sight of a flock of geese flying past the full moon, he is inspired to write a poem.
About the Artist
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi · 1839–1892
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was born on April 30, 1839, in the Shimbashi district of Edo, the city that would become Tokyo. At the age of eleven he was apprenticed to Utagawa Kuniyoshi, one of the great masters of the Japanese woodblock print, who gave the boy the artist name 'Yoshitoshi' as a mark of lineage within the Utagawa School. From Kuniyoshi, Yoshitoshi absorbed the full tradition of ukiyo-e — th...