Selection of Views of the Tokaido: Kozu Town in Suruga (Tokaido fukei senshu: Suruga Okitsu-cho)

This print from the 'Tokaido fukei senshu' series is subtitled 'Suruga Okitsu-cho,' depicting Okitsu, a coastal post town on the Tokaido in Suruga Province (present-day Shizuoka). Okitsu was the fifteenth of the fifty-three Tokaido stations, known for its position where the road runs close to the rocky Suruga Bay shoreline with occasional views of Mount Fuji to the northeast. Hasui's composition likely emphasizes the sea wall, coastal pine trees, or the low rooftops of the post-town with the bay stretching beyond. The Suruga coast offered Hasui clear atmospheric conditions and an expanse of water that suited his horizontal compositions. The Tokaido print series deliberately echoed Hiroshige's famous 'Fifty-three Stations' while articulating a distinctly twentieth-century aesthetic sensibility.