Evening in Miho

Miho refers to Miho no Matsubara, the long pine-clad sandspit that curves into Suruga Bay in Shizuoka and that classical poetry and Noh drama had long associated with the legend of the celestial robe. As an evening subject, the print would belong to Hasui's substantial body of twilight and night scenes, where the printer's bokashi gradations are used to model the transition from a lit horizon to a darker upper sky. Hasui's evening prints typically reduce the keyblock outline in favour of broad colour fields, with silhouetted pines, fishing boats, or the distant cone of Mount Fuji providing the principal accents — Fuji is visible across Suruga Bay from Miho and is a near-mandatory presence in views of the site. The combination of a classical meisho with a quiet, low-light moment is characteristic of Hasui's shin-hanga practice, which favoured contemplative atmosphere over the bustle of Edo-period predecessors and required a printer skilled at layered, even tones.