Unknown, collecting shells

This figure subject, likely depicting a woman or child gathering shells on a beach, sits within the shin-hanga tradition of figures in natural settings. The combination of figure and coastal landscape gives Yoshida opportunity to demonstrate two of his strengths: the modeling of human form with soft color gradations, and the rendering of open sea and sky through bokashi. The shell-collecting subject has a gentle, quotidian quality distinct from the monumental landscape subjects for which he is best known. The low tidal foreground would provide a textured surface of wet sand, shells, and shallow water, with the figure positioned to create a diagonal line into the composition.