日本在长达两百年的闭关锁国后，向西方打开了国门。这一时期，日本版画艺术家月冈芳年（Tsukioka Yoshitoshi，1839-1892）也到了成年的时候。他的作品涉及日本现代社会的文化传统和政治动荡，也在探寻更大范围的主题，如武士道精神、美人画、历史画、鬼怪画、自然中的诗意人物，以及战场的惨烈景象。

《月冈芳年：精神与奇观》呈现了费城艺术博物馆收藏的1200多件月冈芳年的版画作品，是其在日本之外数量最多的收藏馆。展览亮点有艺术家晚年创作的杰作——《月百姿 》（One Hundred Aspects of the Moon ）。这一版画系列中的人物包括日本武士、市井百姓、 鬼怪恶魔、风尘女子等，都取自于日本和中国与月亮相关的神话传说、文学作品、戏剧作品或历史记载中。费城艺术博物馆收藏的月冈芳年的版画作品于1993年向公众全面开放。

Printmaker Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892) came of age as Japan opened to the West after two hundred years of isolation. Navigating both cultural traditions and the upheavals of the modern world, he explored a wide range of themes: the heroism of samurai warriors, poetic images of figures in nature, female beauty, historic accounts, ghost stories, and the horrors of the battlefield.

Spirit and Spectacle showcases the Museum’s extraordinary collection of more than 1,200 prints by Yoshitoshi, the largest repository of his work outside his native Japan. Highlights include selections from the artist’s final project and perhaps best-known series, One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885–92), made near the end of his life. The range of characters portrayed in this suite of prints include stoic warriors and samurai, everyday townspeople, demons, and courtesans, all of which are drawn from stories relating to the moon, culled from Japanese and Chinese history, famous legends, literature, theatre, and folklore.The Museum’s prints by Yoshitoshi have not been shown in depth since 1993.