Kôtsuki River in Kagoshima (Kagoshima Kôtsukigawa), from the series Selected Views of Japan (Nihon fûkei senshû)

The Kôtsuki River flows through central Kagoshima city in southern Kyushu, its banks marking the eastern edge of the urban core before the river reaches Kinko Bay. Published in the "Selected Views of Japan" (Nihon fûkei senshû) series under the Watanabe Shôzaburô imprint, this oban-format print reflects Hasui's systematic travel through regional Japan during the early 1920s. The composition likely places the viewer at river level, with the water surface rendered through layered ink washes to suggest depth and atmospheric light. Kagoshima's proximity to Sakurajima volcano gave the region a distinctive quality of diffused, hazy air that could lend even midday scenes a soft luminosity. The series continued Hasui's documentation of meisho—famous and scenic places—following the template established by Hokusai and Hiroshige in the nineteenth century, reinterpreted through the shin-hanga aesthetic of naturalistic light and seasonal atmosphere. Characteristic bokashi gradations in the sky and water zones would unify the pictorial registers.