The Hyôjôgawara Riverbed in Sendai (Sendai Hyôjôgawara)

Kawase Hasui's view of the Hyōjōgawara Riverbed in Sendai depicts a section of the Hirose River that flows through Sendai, the principal city of Miyagi Prefecture in the Tōhoku region. The name Hyōjōgawara—roughly, the judgment or tribunal riverbed—records an older function of the site in Sendai's feudal history, when the exposed riverbed served as a place of legal proceedings and executions. Hasui traveled extensively in Tōhoku and produced multiple prints documenting Sendai's landscape and environs. The composition likely emphasizes the broad, flat shingle riverbed characteristic of the Hirose in its lower reaches, with low banks, grey or ochre river stones, and the open Tōhoku sky rendered in cool, diffuse bokashi gradation. Sendai's northern light distinguishes Hasui's Tōhoku subjects—their palette cooler and more subdued than his warmer Kantō and Kyushu compositions—lending this riverbed scene an austere, open quality suited to the historical weight carried by the site's name.