Looking out to Sea from Susaki Benten Shrine, Fukagawa, Eastern Capital (Edo)

Looking out to Sea from Susaki Benten Shrine in Fukagawa, Eastern Capital, preserved through the Boston Public Library or a partnering Eastern Tokyo Museum image record under the source code 'etm,' is one of several variations Takahashi Shotei produced around the Susaki promontory. Susaki at Fukagawa was a low sandy spit at the edge of Edo Bay, crowned by a Benten shrine and famous in Edo-period [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) for its panoramic prospect over the water. Shotei, working as Hiroaki for the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, returns to the subject in [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) form, framing the sea through the shrine's torii or fence and emphasizing the open horizon rather than narrative incident. The composition typically leans on a low foreground, a band of pale water, and a layered sky achieved through carefully wiped [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) pulls. The [chuban](/glossary/chuban) landscape format suits the contemplative tone the publisher was cultivating: an intimate print that invites the eye to dwell on subtle tonal shifts rather than tracking complex action. Susaki was a recurring subject in Shotei's catalogue precisely because Watanabe Shozaburo's foreign clientele appreciated views that combined the romance of the Eastern Capital with the universal appeal of sea and sky. Like much of Shotei's pre-1923 output, the design's original blocks were endangered by the Great Kanto earthquake, but surviving impressions, including the one catalogued under the etm source, continue to give scholars and collectors access to this familiar Edo viewpoint as the shin-hanga revival reshaped it.