Shichiri Beach at Enoshima (Enoshima Shichirigahama)

This color woodblock print in oban format, dated to circa 1789-1818 and held by the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts the long stretch of Shichiri Beach extending toward the island of Enoshima off the coast of Sagami Province south of Edo. Enoshima, sacred to the goddess Benten and accessible at low tide via a sandbar, was a celebrated pilgrimage and pleasure destination throughout the Edo period, and its dramatic coastal scenery made it a favorite subject for landscape print designers. Hokuju constructs the view with the strong perspective scheme that became his signature: the curving beach recedes deep into the picture space, leading the eye toward the distant silhouette of the island. The sea is rendered in graded blue bokashi printing, dark at the horizon and lightening as it approaches the shore. Tiny figures of travelers and beachcombers populate the sand at modest scale, dwarfed by the sweep of coast and water. The print belongs to the same experimental moment in landscape design that would shortly produce the great Fuji and Tokaido series of the 1830s, and it shows Hokuju working out the compositional logic of the famous-view print as a fully formed genre.