Lecture Hall, Tokyo Imperial University

Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) was the country's preeminent institution, and its Hongo campus includes lecture halls in the Western-derived institutional style that became standard for Meiji and Taisho period public buildings. Fujimori's print renders such an interior or exterior as an exercise in formal architectural geometry—rows of seating, lectern, columns, or facade treated through the simplified blocks of color and decisive linework that [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) favored. Architectural and institutional subjects were comparatively unusual in pre-war hanga but had a small precedent within the movement, where artists sought to register modern Japan's Western-derived built environment alongside its traditional one. The carving would emphasize the regular geometry of the building over decorative detail, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) possibly used to model shadow under arches or eaves. The print stands somewhat apart from Fujimori's landscape and figural work, demonstrating the breadth of subject matter that the sosaku-hanga ethos legitimized for the woodblock medium during the interwar period.