"Shirahama 'Engetsuto' ('Round Moon Island' at Shirahama) / Shin Nihon hyakkei 新日本百景 (One Hundred New Views of Japan, No. 35)"

This meisho-e depicts Engetsuto, the wave-eroded tidal arch at Shirahama on the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture, issued as plate thirty-five in the Shin Nihon hyakkei series. The formation's name — Round Moon Island — derives from the near-circular opening worn through the rock by Pacific surf, and compositions of this subject typically frame sea and sky through the arch, using the aperture as a compositional device that draws the eye toward the horizon. Bokashi gradations in the sky and water would register the shifting light characteristic of coastal meisho-e subjects. The Shin Nihon hyakkei series was a mid-twentieth-century publishing venture revisiting the landscape print tradition established by Hiroshige and Hokusai, applying woodblock technique to scenic destinations newly accessible by postwar tourism infrastructure.