Matsue Tenjin-gawa

A view of the Tenjin River (Tenjin-gawa) in Matsue, Hiratsuka's birthplace in Shimane Prefecture. Matsue is built around an interconnected system of canals and rivers feeding Lake Shinji, and the Tenjin-gawa is one of the city's waterways. The print likely depicts the riverbank, its bridges, or the reflective surface of the water itself, treated in Hiratsuka's standard black-and-white woodcut idiom of carved white line against printed [sumi](/glossary/sumi) ink. Architectural and landscape subjects from Matsue and the surrounding Izumo region appear repeatedly across his career, functioning as a sustained personal [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) (famous-place) project rooted in his home ground rather than the Edo-tradition tourist circuit of the Tokaido or the celebrated views of Edo. The choice to render water without gradient washes—relying instead on carved patterns and reserved white—distinguishes his approach from the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) landscape printers of his generation, who relied on [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) to evoke atmosphere and mood. The work belongs to a regional documentary thread within his larger architectural output.