Ukijima, Ryujo, Ibaragi, Ukishima- Yanaginawa

This print depicts the Ukishima district of Ibaraki Prefecture, a flat coastal marshland known for its willow-edged waterways. The title combines several place references — Ukijima (floating island), Ryujo, and Yanaginawa (willow river) — suggesting a view along the willow-lined canals threading through the low ground of the Ibaraki coastal plain northeast of Tokyo. Hasui's treatment of this horizontal, water-dominated landscape relies on tonal contrast rather than spatial recession: wide sky reflections in still water, willow silhouettes providing vertical punctuation against the horizontal expanse, and gradated bokashi across both sky and water areas communicating the atmospheric quality of an overcast or hazy day. The flat terrain of this region demanded compositional approaches different from Hasui's mountain or coastal subjects, with the horizon placed relatively low and the sky given proportionally greater area. This is the third catalogued version of the subject.