Moon, Bean and Moth – Kawanabe Kyōsai

An autumn night, a full moon, and a moth drawn to the flowers. In this delicate print, Kawanabe Kyōsai sets a pale full moon, simply outlined by a halo of graded blue, behind a climbing bean plant. Its long stems criss-cross the sheet, carrying large leaves striped in two shades of green and clusters of red and white flowers. On the right, a large grey moth with red-ringed eyespots has just landed on a blossom, while a deep purple flower, probably a Chinese bellflower, opens at the left.

The composition is strikingly modern: the moon partly hidden by the leaves, the graphic lines of the stems, the flat areas of green and red on the cream paper. It shows the gentle, observant side of an artist better known for his demons, here working in the tradition of kachō-ga, the Japanese pictures of flowers, birds and insects.

The bean moon

In Japan, the beauty of the autumn moon has been celebrated for centuries during tsukimi, moon-viewing nights, with offerings of seasonal produce. The moon of the thirteenth night of the ninth lunar month is even called mame meigetsu, the “bean moon”, because beans were offered to it. Kyōsai’s bean flowers beneath the full moon echo this autumn tradition, while the bellflower is one of the seven flowers of autumn in Japanese poetry.

• Artist: Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889)
• Date: 19th century
• Technique: woodblock print
• Format: horizontal
• Theme: moon, flowers, moth, Japanese botanical art

Its fresh greens and soft cream background make it a lovely piece for a living room, a bedroom or a botanical gallery wall. Pair it with Kyōsai’s minimalist Crow Resting on a Tree Trunk, and discover more of his work in our Kyōsai collection.