Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series: Urahama, Echigo (Tabi miyage dainishu: Echigo no Urahama)

Urahama, a coastal settlement in Echigo province (present-day Niigata Prefecture), faces the Japan Sea and the seasonal extremes that characterize that coast—heavy winter snowfall, rough surf, and grey overcast light. Hasui's view likely depicts fishing vessels drawn up on the beach or moored in a small harbor, with low dunes or breakwaters and the open sea extending to the horizon. The Japan Sea coast subjects in the Tabi miyage series are notable for their restrained palettes, where sky and water share a common grey-blue register and human figures, if present, are reduced to small accents of color. The print reflects Hasui's sketching tour itinerary through the northern Honshu coast in the early 1920s, a region less traveled by artists than the Pacific side and one that offered compositional subjects defined by weather and maritime labor rather than cultural monuments.