Looking out to Sea from the Benten Shrine at Susaki in Fukagawa (Fukagawa Susaki Benten yori kaijo o nozomu), from the series "Eastern Capital (Toto)"

This color woodblock print in oban format from Hokuju's Eastern Capital (Toto) series, dated to circa 1789-1818 and held by the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts the view out to Edo Bay from the Benten shrine at Susaki in the Fukagawa district. Susaki was a sandy promontory east of the Sumida River where a popular shrine dedicated to Benten, the goddess of music, water, and good fortune, drew worshippers and sightseers from the city. The site offered a sweeping panorama of the bay, with sailing ships, fishing boats, and the distant peninsula of Boso visible across the water. Hokuju arranges the composition to emphasize the seaward view, with the foreground shrine precincts giving way to a vast expanse of graded blue water and pale sky. Tiny figures of visitors enjoy the prospect, leaning on railings or strolling along the embankment. The print exemplifies how Edo landscape designers used celebrated viewpoints to organize their compositions, turning meisho (famous places) into both topographical records and aesthetic experiences. The cool, atmospheric clarity of the sea and sky is characteristic of Hokuju's mature style.