Whistler visually represented his Japanese mindset by using Japanese prints as templates for his works. Correspondingly, his artistic identity - like his personal identity - was largely dependent on his use of Japanese techniques. In creating his “moonlights,� Whistler strove to master the style of the Japanese masters, particularly Hiroshige. Though he never visited Japan, Whistler learned all he could about Japanese artistic theories and techniques, even adopting Eastern themes, palette, and brushstrokes. Klaus Berger, author of Japonisme in Western Painting from Whistler to Matisse, tells us that Whistler drew inspiration from his enormous collection of Japanese artifacts throughout his career (Berger 54). How important it was to him to make his Japanese influences known is realized in a conversation with his friend and follower, Mortimer Menpes. Whistler’s response to Menpes’ recent visit to Japan reflects the extent to which he saw himself as a Japanese master and saw his art as creating Japan in London. Menpes ventured to tell Whistler of the work of another Japanese master, only to be confuted with Whistler’s retort of “that is my method� (Menpes 41). As Menpes recalled,
“I explained that every touch Kyosai placed upon his stretched silk was perfectly balance and well placed, and that therefore, if the picture was arrested at any moment during its career, it would form a perfect whole…‘That is my method,’ interrupted Whistler…I described how that he began when painting a figure…There was no accident: all was sure, a scientific certainty from beginning to end…‘That is my method,’ Whistler broke in volubly: ‘that is exactly my method’� (Menpes 41).
As Menpes recalled, because Whistler saw himself as a Japanese artist, he could not understand the desire of his follower to seek out Japanese masters in the East. Whistler saw himself as a Japanese artist, whose works represented the elements of a Japanese master and created artistically, Japan in London. The titling of the “moonlights� after Hiroshige’s binary color theory was meant to underscore the importance of Japanese artistic influences on Whistler’s own styles and methods.
Whistler’s use of the binary color schemes of Japanese paintings and prints in his “moonlights� and in their titles reflects his principal aspiration to paint like the Japanese masters. 
He greatly admired the use of the binary color scheme in Hiroshige’s paintings and prints, exclaiming, “‘The same color ought to appear in the picture continually here and there, in the same way that thread appears in an embroidery…Look how well the Japanese have understood this. They never look for contrast, on the contrary, they’re after repetition’� (qtd. Holden 13). Whistler took Hiroshige’s binary color theory to heart in creating his “moonlights.� Another of Hiroshige’s pieces, Night View of Kanazawa under the Full Moon, which was completed in 1857 not long before Whistler began his own “moonlights,� displays a binary color scheme of blue and gray. Though the work includes white elements such as the moon and waves, this third color comes from the background on which the work was done and thus was not actively employed by the artist. 
Whistler’s Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water bears striking similarity to Night View of Kanazawa under the Full Moon, depicting a moonlit bay done in a binary color scheme of blue and gray. However, unlike Hiroshige, Whistler used white and gold oils to paint the moon as well as the light from other ships in the harbor, which do not figure in to Hiroshige’s piece, thus demonstrating the continuing influence of the West on his style. Nevertheless, in the Japanese tradition, Whistler was known for paying special attention to his grounds (Chaleyssin 38). Furthermore, that he created copious quantities of “moonlights� all in binary color schemes demonstrates the extent to which Whistler was dedicated to the Japanese master Hiroshige’s theories of color. 
Whistler wove variations on the same two tones together on canvas to create the look and feel of dusk that he recognized in Japanese paintings and prints. By using a reduced color scheme, he emphasized the murkiness of the night air – its ability to merge two distinct entities into one. Indeed, on two occasions, Whistler’s “moonlights� were hung upside-down by gallery workers unable to tell the difference between the water and sky (Chaleyssin 40). This confusion is understandable given the almost perfect mirror image of the two elements that Whistler creates in “moonlights� such as Nocturne in Blue and Silver – Battersea Reach and Nocturne in Blue and Silver – Cremorne Lights. And, given the difficulty in distinguishing water and sky, it is easy to see how Whistler might have succeeded in combining Japan and London in the foggy 
Chelsea nights. Painting in a binary color scheme, Whistler’s “moonlights� are an attempt to show European landscapes through the eyes of the Japanese – to see London as Tokyo.
Whistler. Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water, 1872-74.
Hiroshige. Night View of Kanazawa under the Full Moon, 1857.
Whistler. Nocturne in Blue and Silver – Cremorne Lights, 1872-77.
Whistler. Nocturne in Blue and Silver – Battersea Reach, 1872-77.