Ryûga Island, Oga Peninsula — Kawase Hasui

The wild coast of northern Japan

Off the shore of the Oga Peninsula, the rocky mass of Ryūga Island rises from the Sea of Japan. Far from the temples and snowy streets that made him famous, Kawase Hasui shows here another side of his art: a pure seascape, where rock, water and sky are the only characters.

Oga, a peninsula at the edge of Japan

The Oga Peninsula juts out into the Sea of Japan from Akita Prefecture, in the north of Honshu. Known for its dramatic cliffs and for the namahage, the fearsome masked figures of its New Year tradition, it was a remote destination in the 1920s. Hasui's third Souvenirs of Travel series includes several views of Akita Prefecture, among them this island and the nearby Kōjaku Cavern.

From the Souvenirs of Travel series

Published by Watanabe Shōzaburō in 1926, this print belongs to the third Souvenirs of Travel series (Tabi miyage dai sanshū), 29 views of Japan issued between 1924 and 1929. It is a horizontal composition, a format that lets the horizon stretch across the whole sheet. Impressions are held in museum collections, including the Toledo Museum of Art. To discover the movement behind these prints, read our article on the history of Japanese prints, from ukiyo-e to shin-hanga.

Why it works so well on a wall

Its horizontal format makes this print a natural fit above a sofa, a bed, a sideboard or a desk. Calm and open, it brings the breath of the sea into a seaside home, a bathroom or a living room with blue, grey or sand tones. A thin black or light oak frame keeps the composition airy.

• Artist: Kawase Hasui (1883–1957)
• Japanese title: Oga hantō Ryūgashima
• Date: 1926
• Series: Souvenirs of Travel, Third Series (Tabi miyage dai sanshū)
• Publisher: Watanabe Shōzaburō, Tokyo
• Original: color woodblock print, horizontal ōban format
• Our print: high-quality reproduction on museum-grade matte paper (not an original woodblock print)

From the same series, discover Tennoji Temple in Osaka and Morning in Beppu, or explore our full Kawase Hasui prints collection.