
Seto Inland Sea National Park
- Medium:
- Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
- Image courtesy of
- Saru Gallery
Description
This print depicts the Seto Inland Sea, the protected stretch of water enclosed by Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, designated as one of Japan's earliest national parks in 1934. The Setouchi region is characterized by hundreds of small wooded islands, calm channels, and the muted light particular to this enclosed seascape. Nishiyama likely composes the scene with layered island silhouettes receding into haze, a treatment well suited to mokuhanga and to bokashi gradations that thin pigment toward the horizon. Foreground pines or shoreline rocks would anchor the design against the broad water, following a meisho-e convention inherited from Hiroshige and continued by shin-hanga landscape artists such as Hasui and Yoshida. The painterly handling typical of Nishiyama's nihonga-trained eye would emphasize atmospheric tone over linear contour. As a national-park subject, this print belongs to the cluster of scenic-region prints Nishiyama produced across his career, mapping onto the postwar revival of domestic travel imagery and the shin-hanga tradition of celebrated-place landscape.
More Prints by Nishiyama Hideo
More Seascapes Prints

Child of the Sea
1940
Woodblock print

The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban

Pacific Ocean, Awa Province (Boshu Taikai), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Third Series (Tabi miyage dai sanshu)"
Boshu Taikai
1925
Color woodblock print; oban

Pine Beach at Miho (Miho no Matsubara), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)"
September 1931
Color woodblock print; oban
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Seto Inland Sea National Park was created by Nishiyama Hideo (西山英雄).
Seto Inland Sea National Park depicts seascapes and gardens.



