The moon has been a significant character throughout Japanese history dating back to as early as the Asuka period when Buddhist inspired art began to feature the sun and moon together as a popular theme. The moon not only represented a strong harvest, but also provided a form of personal enlightenment, solitude and appreciation of beauty. As the popularity of ukiyo-e grew during the Edo period, the artistic interpretation of the moon became easily accessible to regular citizens as this artwork was mass produced, and even extended it's influence into Western artists including Van Gogh and Monet. In this post, I have included selections of Japanese art featuring the moon from the Ukiyo-e, Shin Hanga and Sosaku Hanga movements.

The sight of a stone garden automatically brings to mind memories of my time in Japan. These stone gardens are beautiful temples to simplicity, peace, balance and meditation. A central part to the Japanese meditative experience, you will find stone gardens as a theme in Japanese art work of all eras, but particularly among those artists who participated in the Sosaku Hanga movement. In this post I explore some of my favorite works around this theme and highlight the artists who created them.