Scrapped vessel at Uraga

Uraga, at the southern entrance to Tokyo Bay, was the harbor where Commodore Perry's ships anchored in 1853 and remains a working maritime district with shipyards and breaking docks. Hashimoto's view of a scrapped vessel turns from architectural monumentality toward industrial decay, finding in a dismantled hull the same structural interest as in a castle keep — the visible internal framing of a ship under demolition exposes ribs and plates as architecture exposes beams. The subject sits within the postwar interest among [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) artists in everyday and industrial Japan, alongside Saitō Kiyoshi's studies of houses and roofs and Sekino Jun'ichirō's working-life portraits. Hashimoto's printing emphasizes the silhouette of the broken hull against water and sky, with a limited palette and visible woodgrain through the open areas. The choice of a scrapped rather than functioning ship adds a quiet documentary note, recording a transitional industrial scene. As elsewhere in his work, Hashimoto carved and printed all blocks himself.