Gold & Ink · Triptych of hanging scrolls · Kanō Tan'yū, after 1662
Landscape in Moonlight
Most of this painting is left empty.
The Work
Three silk scrolls as one view: misty peaks, a moon and small boat at center, and a village that may be under snow.
Look Closer
Most of the silk is left empty. That blank space becomes the night mist, the silence, the moonlight itself.
The Artist
Tan'yū was born in Kyoto in 1602, grandson of the great Kanō Eitoku. In 1617, still in his teens, he became painter to the shogun.
The Artist
He painted for Edo, Nijō, and Nagoya castles, and made the Kanō school the official painters of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Japan at the Time
In 1657 the Great Meireki Fire destroyed much of Edo, including the castle keep — which was never rebuilt.
Culture & Values
In old age, Tan'yū turned from gold and bright color to pale ink and open space — saying more by painting less.
Meanwhile, in the World
In the 1660s, London suffered the Great Plague and the Great Fire, while in Delft, Vermeer painted quiet rooms of light.
Afterward
Tan'yū's style became the Kanō model for the next two centuries, a standard for Japanese painting until the Meiji era.
Listen while you look
This work stays on screen for about ten minutes in the full hour of Gold & Ink, with Mist Over Moonlit Mountains and Boat Beneath The Moon.
Take this print home
This work is in the Gold & Ink wallpaper pack — all six prints, sized for phone and desktop.
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