Kude Beach in Wakasa

Kude Beach (Kude no hama) on Wakasa Bay represents the type of coastal meisho subject Hasui documented throughout his extensive travels across Japan. Wakasa Province, now western Fukui Prefecture, faces the Sea of Japan, a body of water that in winter generates heavy swells and overcast skies, and in calmer seasons offers translucent shallow-water colors against pale sand and rock. Hasui's approach to coastal subjects typically selects a vantage point close to the water, foregrounding the interface of land and sea while drawing the eye toward the atmospheric middle distance. The composition likely features pines or rocky outcroppings framing the view—visual devices with deep roots in meisho-e painting traditions, reinterpreted through the naturalistic light conventions of shin-hanga. This version is one of at least three known impressions of the Kude Beach design, each produced by hand-pulling from the same carved blocks, with differences between states potentially reflecting variation in the gradation depth of the sky or the tonal range of the sea surface.