Inland Sea

The Seto Inland Sea, flanked by Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu and scattered with more than three thousand islands, provided Japanese artists with one of the country's most celebrated natural subjects. Oda's print likely depicts a view across the water with layered islands receding into atmospheric haze, a compositional type that exploits the Inland Sea's distinctive character of overlapping landforms at multiple distances. The bokashi technique would render the gradation from foreground water to a luminous pale sky, while the silhouettes of islands and any fishing vessels would be printed as discrete tonal shapes. The subject connects Oda's work to the long meisho-e tradition of depicting famous coastal views while his technical approach reflects the modernist sensibility of sosaku-hanga practice.