Shinano Province: The Moon Reflected in the Sarashina Rice Paddies and Mount Kyodai

Printerprinted by Utagawa Hiroshige I 歌川広重 (Japanese, 1797–1858)

Date1853

Mediumink and color on paper

Dimensions34.3 x 22.9 cm (13 1/2 x 9 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineJohn Chandler Bancroft Collection

Terms

Object number1901.59.1418

DescriptionPrint no. 25 of the series: "Famous Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces"
Label TextThis region of Japan is famous for its rice culture, with paddy fields forming stepped tiers down the mountain slopes. Here, Hiroshige depicts a nighttime scene in which each rice paddy reflects the moon. The great haiku poet Matsuo Basho wrote a travel memoir about his journey to Sarashina in 1688, which made this moonlit view famous: “The moon is already sixteen days old, and yet I linger in Sarashina Village.”

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