The Moon-Viewing Promontory, from One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo (1857): Art, History and Details

The Moon-Viewing Promontory, from One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo (1857) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Here, Utagawa Hiroshige’s design places the viewer by pine trees, peering beyond a doorway at the end of a moon-viewing party. The silhouette of a figure with an elaborate hairstyle is visible through a translucent paper door; only the person’s hem trails into view. Another individual remains seated on the floor in the upper right, near a musical instrument and a tray with blue-and-white ceramics, possibly still admiring the autumn moon over ships in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay.

Object facts

• Title: The Moon-Viewing Promontory, from One Hundred Views of Famous Places in Edo
• Date: 1857
• Creator attribution: Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: 33.9 x 22.8 cm (13 3/8 x 9 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.320

A detail from the museum

Beginning in the 700s, the Japanese held moon-viewing parties in celebration of the full moon during the late summer and autumn months. A full moon is visible in this print.

Collection credit

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby's (Firm). Highly Important Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books, Drawings and Paintings from the Henri Vever Collection: Part III. London: Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., 1977.
• "Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (1988): 292-95.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.