Autumn in Koshiji, from the series Souvenirs of Travel, First Series

This print from Hasui's landmark series Tabi miyage dai isshu (Souvenirs of Travel, First Series), published by Watanabe Shozaburo beginning in 1919, depicts the Koshiji region—the old poetic name for the mountainous Echigo district along the Japan Sea coast of Niigata Prefecture. The autumn palette likely employs warm ochres and burnt siennas against cooler distances, a color separation achieved through precisely registered woodblocks. Koshiji's landscape of terraced rice paddies, forested ridges, and scattered farmhouses provided Hasui with characteristic material: a quiet rural scene observed during one of his sketching journeys through the provinces. The series established the compositional vocabulary—foreground detail dissolving into atmospheric distance—that would define his landscape practice for decades.