“The moon in a hundred ways”: the exhibition of Yoshitoshi, the last master of ukiyo-e, opens today at the Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam opens today, 1 October 2026, the exhibition “Yoshitoshi. Master of the Moon”, a focused dossier exhibition devoted to Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892), the last great master of ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock printing. The exhibition will remain open until 4 January 2027 and brings before the public for the first time the 100 prints of the famous series “One Hundred Aspects of the Moon” (1885–1892) — as Artprice reports — which were recently added to the museum’s collection thanks to a generous donation.

The moon is the unifying element of the whole cycle: the 100 prints bring Japanese historical figures, warriors, lovers and mythical beings, accompanied by poetry and calligraphy. In them, Yoshitoshi intertwined the old ukiyo-e tradition with Western influences such as perspective and realism, creating one of the most beloved series of 19th-century Japanese art.

The exhibition also sheds light on the special connection between Yoshitoshi and Vincent van Gogh. The Dutch artist greatly admired Japanese prints: starting in 1885, he collected hundreds of them, among them five by Yoshitoshi. The holes in the corners of some prints show that Van Gogh hung them on the wall and studied them carefully, while the large blocks of colour, the strong contours and the unexpected compositions profoundly influenced his artistic development.

According to a Van Gogh Museum statement, this is the first time the complete moon cycle is exhibited for the public — a rare opportunity to see up close the technical mastery and poetic imagination of the artist who closed the golden age of classical ukiyo-e.