The Moon from Suma Beach - 須磨海岸の月

A third recorded impression of Ishiwata's Suma Beach nocturne, the title placing the work in the meisho-e tradition of named-place views with strong literary resonance — Suma carrying associations both with the Tale of Genji and with the Heike Monogatari battle of Ichi-no-Tani nearby. Compositions of this mode typically set a low horizon with the moon's disc held high in the sky, the Suma pines worked in dark contour against successive layers of bokashi blue. The night palette — sumi-deep indigos, slate, occasional warm reflections off the water — was built through multiple impressions on absorbent washi, with the printer adjusting moisture and pigment loading so each layer settled cleanly. Ishiwata's body of landscape work, concentrated in the 1930s, sits within the shin-hanga revival's preference for atmospheric night and dawn views, a category that Tsuchiya Koitsu and Hasui had already made central to the movement's commercial output.