Teuri Jima scenery

Teuri Island lies off Hokkaido's western coast in the Sea of Japan, a small basaltic island known for its precipitous cliffs and the seabird colonies that nest in them. Kitaoka's depiction situates a working fishing settlement against this geography, the print register likely combining flat color blocks for sea and sky with carved tonal passages for rock and vegetation. As a [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) practitioner, Kitaoka designed, carved, and printed his own blocks on [washi](/glossary/washi) using the [baren](/glossary/baren), integrating pictorial and material decisions in a single hand. Northern Japan—Hokkaido and the Tohoku coast—became a recurring subject in his postwar practice after the return from Manchuria, when the work shifted from the social-documentary registers of his early career toward landscapes shaped by direct observation of remote coastal communities. The composition probably balances horizontal expanses of water against a high cliff or harbor edge, a structural device he used repeatedly in coastal subjects.