Utagawa Hiroshige. Rabbits under the Autumn Moon / Fan print, 1849-52.

Title (as per Okuda Atsuko, 2010): 月 兔 Rabbits in Moonlight

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige [歌川 広重] a.k.a. Andō Hiroshige [安藤 広重] (Japanese, 1797 – 1858)

Signed: Hiroshige (廣重); seal: Ichiryūsai (一立齋)

Publisher: Mikawaya Heiroku (三川屋平六); seal: sanpei (三平) fan-shaped

Censor seals: Hama (濱) & Magome (馬込)

Date: c. 1849–1851

Media: Color woodblock print, fan print (chuban uchiwa-e), 223 x 260 mm

Provenance: Nelkin Collection

Two rabbits are shown under a large full moon silhouetted against a softly graded blue night sky. One rabbit, rendered in white with a red eye, sits upright facing the moon, while the other, lightly shaded in pale pink, rests in the foreground, partially crouched. The hill they occupy is gently sloping and dotted with tufts of autumn grass (susuki, 薄), their thin, curving stalks swaying in the breeze. The minimalist composition and subdued palette evoke the quiet stillness of an autumn evening and the poetic associations of moon-viewing (tsukimi, 月見).

This elegant uchiwa-e (fan print) reflects classical seasonal imagery rooted in Heian poetry and visual traditions. Rabbits and the full moon symbolize mid-autumn and harvest time. The simplicity and balance of line and colour are characteristic of Utagawa Hiroshige‘s approach to nature motifs.

Reference:

• [LIB-3426.2025] Christophe Marquet. Hiroshige: Les éventails d’Edo / Estampes de la collection Georges Leskowicz. — Paris: In fine, 2022; p. 272, pl. 115.

“At least seven examples of this print are known, one of which presents a different background (former collection Werner Schindler), with the addition of a green tone in the lower part to evoke a meadow—possibly constituting an earlier version. Art historian Narazaki Muneshige (Narazaki 1973, p. 37) considered that this print may have been intended as the reverse of a fan, but the existence of numerous examples contradicts this hypothesis, as this type of print is very rarely preserved in good condition”.

• [LIB-3465.2025] Okuda Atsuko. Hiroshige’s Fan Prints: Unknown Ukiyo-e (Hiroshige no uchiwa-e, 広重の団扇絵 知られざる浮世絵). — Kyoto: Unsōdō, 2010.

“Using a technique that avoids contour lines, the artist expresses the soft texture of the rabbit. In addition, the withered feeling of the autumn grasses is skillfully conveyed through sumi ink lines that faithfully reproduce the brushstrokes of the grassy surface. Despite the charming subject matter, the image has a tranquil, refined, subdued aesthetic.
This print was published around Kaei 2–5 (1849–1852) by the publisher “Sanpei” (三平).
The illustrated example is held in the Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, with other impressions from the same woodblocks held by the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, the de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.”

Bibliography:

• Matsuki 1924, no. 64 (former coll. Nakamura Tatsujiro)
• Ukiyo-e geijutsu, no. 14, 1967, p. 3 (coll. Uchiyama Susumu)
• Narazaki 1973, no. 79 (Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, Katherine Ball Collection)
• Schindler 1985, no. 52
• Okuda Atsuko 2010, № 174, catalogue raisonné № 479: Ōta Memorial Museum of Art
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 21.10128 (acquired by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1913 for Spaulding)
• The Art Institute of Chicago, 1934.274 (former coll. Clarence Buckingham)