Also suhama 州浜. A shape made up of three rings. Used in garden design and landscape paintings. An imitation of a sandy beach. Usually the shape is twisted or elongated to create an original variation. A good example can be seen in the temple garden of Mōtsūji 毛越寺 (mid-12th century), in Iwate Prefecture, where a flat sandbar projects into the south-eastern corner of the lake Ōizumi-ike 大泉池.
A motif representing the sandbars built up near Hōrai 蓬莱 (see *Hōraisan 蓬莱山), the legendary isle of youth. A landscape design fūkeimon 風景文, it was used in congratulatory ceremonies during the Heian period as the shape for stands dai 台. It was sometimes substituted for cloud designs *unmon 雲文, especially when plants were used. In *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 prints it was used with waves. It is found on *kosode 小袖, and in fūkeimon ocean scenes to separate the scene from the background. It was used as a shape for individual objects such as ceramic dishes and also as a repeating motif.
