Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushi-ko), from the series Souvenirs of Travel I (Tabi miyage dai isshû)

This print is from Tabi miyage dai isshû (Souvenirs of Travel, First Collection), one of Hasui's most significant early series, published by Watanabe Shozaburo beginning in 1919. The Souvenirs of Travel series compiled views gathered during extensive sketch tours across Japan, establishing Hasui's reputation as the foremost shin-hanga landscape designer of his generation. The depiction of Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (present-day Fukui Prefecture) records the lake's characteristic geography: a narrow freshwater body separated from Obama Bay by a pine-forested barrier bar. The composition likely places a row of pines across the middle distance, their reflections falling on the still lake surface below. As an early series print, the block carving and pigment application reflect conventions established under Watanabe's close oversight, with precise key-block line work defining the pine trunks and foliage masses against a graduated sky. The Souvenirs series prints are typically oban format, hand-printed with the careful baren pressure that distinguishes Watanabe's production from commercial lithographic contemporaries.