PHAVOS™ · UNIVERSES · UKIYO-E · 1885

Moon of Pure Snow at Asano River

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, 1885

The Artwork

Moon of Pure Snow at Asano River: Chikako, the Filial Daughter is a colour woodblock print made in 1885 as part of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s One Hundred Aspects of the Moon.

The composition catches a single suspended instant. Chikako is already beyond the riverbank, her hands pressed together as her robes lift around her. A full moon sits low over the water; snow-covered branches close in from above and two birds break away from the scene. Yoshitoshi holds everything at the point just before impact, turning movement into an image that feels strangely still.

The Artist

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) worked through one of the most disruptive periods in modern Japanese history, as the country moved from the late Edo period into the Meiji era. Trained within the ukiyo-e tradition, he pushed the woodblock print toward more dramatic compositions, expressive figures and tightly controlled narrative scenes.

One Hundred Aspects of the Moon began in 1885 and became one of the defining projects of his final years. Across the series, the moon connects episodes drawn from history, literature, legend and popular memory without forcing them into a single story.

The Story

Chikako was the daughter of Zeniya Gohei, a wealthy merchant who was imprisoned following a disastrous land-reclamation project at Lake Kahokugata. Dead fish appeared near the works and local people were reported to have become ill after eating them.

In the story associated with Yoshitoshi’s print, Chikako throws herself into the icy Asano River in an act of filial devotion, hoping that the sacrifice would persuade the authorities to release her father. It did not. He later died in prison.

Yoshitoshi does not show the aftermath. He chooses the moment of decision.

The PHAVOS™ Interpretation

Yoshitoshi’s print is reproduced intact. That choice is deliberate.

Ukiyo-e was made to circulate. Woodblock printing allowed images to be produced in multiples, sold commercially and experienced by a growing urban public. Its culture developed around the tastes of townspeople — merchants, artisans, theatre-goers and collectors — rather than being confined to courts, institutions or aristocratic patronage.

That history sits close to the idea behind PHAVOS™.

Killin’ Luxury™ questions the idea that cultural value has to depend on distance, scarcity or exclusion.

Something can be deeply considered, beautifully made and culturally significant while still belonging in everyday life.

Moon of Pure Snow at Asano River already carries that idea within it. It does not need to be redesigned to become PHAVOS™.

So we left it intact.

The only intervention is its context: Yoshitoshi’s image moves from paper to clothing, returning a reproducible work of art to something that can once again circulate through the world, carried by the people wearing it.