Reeds with Moon

High in the tall composition floats a large round moon veiled in thin cloud. In the lower half of the foreground reeds rise, their thin and broad leaves distinguished by shades of ink. Almost no color is used; the stillness of night is expressed only through the tones of ink on pale brown silk. Many lines of writing fill the right and left sides of the picture.

According to the museum's commentary, the upper and lower right carry a poem by the poet Kagawa Kageki: "Sumida River / in the evening tide at the night ferry / the moon's reflection / rises late." Kageki was a poet active in Kyoto, and the commentary suggests that he probably became friends with Buncho through the Osaka literatus Kimura Kenkado. It also wonders whether the painting shows the harvest moon of mid-autumn.

The commentary adds that a similar work in the Feinberg Collection, "Autumn Night Full Moon," dates to Bunka 14 (1817), so this work would be from the year before. Buncho was born in Edo and studied widely, from Chinese painting to Western-style painting, showing a varied style that combined features of different schools. This scroll is 109.5 cm high and 36.0 cm wide.