50,000 Secrets of the Moon (series)

Holding untold secrets, the Moon full of mystery and mischief, constant and unintelligible.

Images:

No. 1, Where Ideas Come From? (March 2020)

No. 2, Heffalump Hides the Moon (April 2021)

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Honoring the legacy of Yoshitoshi, Tsukioka (1839-1892), “One Hundred Aspects of the Moon” series.

(Excerpts from Introduction, “ One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, Japanese Woodblock Prints by Yoshitoshi”, by Tamara Tjardes, published by Museum of New Mexico Press, copyright 2003, ISBN: 0-89013-438-3)

• Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was born in the city of Edo (now Tokyo) shortly before Japan’s violent transformation from Medieval to Modern Society.

• During the Edo Period (1600-1868), woodblock prints, or ukiyo-e (literally, “Pictures of the Floating World”), became one of the most popular and inexpensive visual art forms in Japan.

• Yoshitoshi’s series “One Hundred Aspects of the Moon” completed shortly before his death in 1892 and published between 1885 and 1892, epitomizes the restraint and subtlety that marks his mature work.

• Reverence for the Moon has a rich cultural history in Japan. In a predominately agrarian society the power of the moon, in all its manifestations, was worshiped, celebrated and feared