Yoshitoshi 芳年: The Moon of the Milky Way 銀河月 (SOLD)

Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) 芳年
Title: Ginga no tsuki 銀河月 (The Moon of the Milky Way)

Series: One Hundred Aspects of the Moon 月百姿 Date: 1886

The celestial lovers the Weaver Maiden Orihime and the Herdsman Hikoboshi gaze across the clear blue sky, a gentle sense of yearning between them. They represent the two brightest stars in the sky, Vega and Altair, which face each other across the Milky Way. The Tanabata Festival is based on their story, popular for almost 2 millennia in China and since the eighth century in Japan. These two lovers may only meet in the sky once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Yoshitoshi has made the lovers Chinese, and has placed them standing on clouds in the evening sky. The ox that the herdsman leans on looks surprisingly grounded, despite his insubstantial footing of clouds.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition; an unusually nice example. With blindprinting in the cartouche and lacquer-style printing in the edges of Hikoboshi’s robe. Dimensions: ôban 35.6 x 24 cm
Publisher: Akiyama Buemon    Date: 1886
Literature: John Stevenson, Yoshitoshi’s One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (San Francisco: San Francisco Graphic Society, 1992), number 40. See British Museum, Portland Art Museum, RISD Museum.
Signature: Yoshitoshi

SKU: YOT932