Noto peninsula, Ushitsu harbour

Ushitsu is a small fishing harbor on the eastern Inner Bay coast of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, sheltered by the peninsula's hooked geography. This seascape print likely depicts moored fishing boats, the curve of the inlet, distant coastal mountains, or fishermen at work — the kinds of working-port subjects that interested Hakutei more than the symbolic landscapes of the ukiyo-e tradition. The mokuhanga technique renders sea and sky through bokashi gradations on washi, with the boats and harbor architecture handled through carved-block linework. Hakutei's interest in the Noto and Kaga regions reflects a wider pattern in his career of depicting parts of Japan outside the Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka corridor commonly worked by his contemporaries. His position bridging the sosaku-hanga and shin-hanga movements meant he could approach such regional subjects with both the self-printed artist's sensibility of the creative-print movement and the technical refinement of collaborative shin-hanga production.