The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 22, 2025

The Minister Toru Daijin Standing by a Lake Beneath a Crescent Moon, from the series A True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poetry

1834–35

Katsushika Hokusai

(Japanese, 1760–1849)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
color woodblock print
Overall: 52 x 23 cm (20 1/2 x 9 1/16 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade 1916.1142
Location: Not on view

Description

A high-ranking minister, Toru (822–895) was the son of an emperor. In this scene, he enjoys the company of two other men in his landscape garden overlooking the water. Here Hokusai may have illustrated a poem by Toru that mentions boats floating on the water in bright moonlight, shaded by the pines.
  • ?–1916
    Mr. Jeptha Homer Wade II [1857–1926] and Mrs. Ellen Garretson Wade [1859–1917], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1916–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Thompson, Barbara. The International Block Print Renaissance Then and Now: Block Prints in Wichita, Kansas, a Centennial Celebration, 1922-2022. [Wichita, Kansas]: Wichita Art Museum, 2021. Reproduced: p. 245
  • Transformations in Japanese Printmaking. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 25-December 30, 1984).
    Japanese Prints from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 5-October 28, 1934).
  • {{cite web|title=The Minister Toru Daijin Standing by a Lake Beneath a Crescent Moon, from the series A True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poetry|url=false|author=Katsushika Hokusai|year=1834–35|access-date=22 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.1142