Hakodate Orthodox church

The Hakodate Orthodox Church, completed in its present form in 1916 after fire destroyed an earlier nineteenth-century structure, stands above the port city of Hakodate in southern Hokkaido and is one of the most distinctive examples of Russian-influenced ecclesiastical architecture in Japan. Its white stuccoed walls, copper-roofed onion domes, and bell tower made it a recurring subject for modern Japanese printmakers. Sekino's treatment fits within his wider body of architectural and cityscape prints, in which he applied the formal vocabulary of sosaku-hanga — flat color planes, restrained keyblock line, selective bokashi gradation — to specific built subjects rather than the genre scenes and portraits more typical of the movement. The geometric clarity of the church's domes and gables suited his preference for simplified silhouettes, and the contrast between the light masonry and dark roofing offered a strong tonal armature. Printed on washi with the careful registration that characterizes his finished editions, the work demonstrates Sekino's range beyond the Tokaido series.