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ArtistFull-screen, complete width, broad, 16:9 format of a delicate linocut with somber colors, executed on rough handmade paper of poem number 86, Saigyō Hōshi, of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu: "Should I blame the moon / For bringing forth this sadness, / As if it pictured grief? / Lifting up my troubled face, / I regard it through my tears." The image shows a despondent young man in a dark overcoat with an upturned collar. His hands are defiantly stuffed deep in the pockets of his overcoat' as he gazes upward at the pale, full moon late at night. The pale light of the moon is reflected in his face, tears glinting in the moonlight. To the left and right of the narrow alley, tall, dark, dimly lit city buildings rise high. Amidst his tousled hair, his face is drawn in emotional pain, and tears are flowing from his eyes as he looks at the impervious moon. The young man's face and the pale blue-white moon's surface are exceedingly detailed, with a zentangle-like esthetic. The somber grays and blacks of the buildings with some smudged, dark yellowish lights in the windows, and the lighter grays of the moonlit street echo the young man's dark mood. Extreme detail, clarity of rendering, timeless, symbolical motif executed with great mastery. Exquisite Japanese folio.
Poem No. 86 from the Japanese poetry collection Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (see https://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/hyakunin/hyakua.html). Another poem that anthropomorphizes the moon, with this young man blaming the moon for his sadness.