As one of the very first prints produced in the series, this image of the Shiba coast along Edo Bay provides early evidence of the distinctive type of composition found later in the series, in which a cut-off section of an enlarged foreground element is set against a distant landscape. We can see the artist working toward a clear division of the foreground and background elements into different spaces. However, the space of the large A-frame channel marker in the foreground is still read as continuous with the background, particularly because of the second marker in the distance. As a result, the boats on the right seem strangely dwarfed in size. The presence of the seal of the carver, Hori-Sen, in the lower left corner confirms the image's early date. After only three prints, the carver's seal was excluded from the series.
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