Korea Seoul Mitsukoshi

A print associated with Mitsukoshi department store's Seoul branch, this work reflects Hasui's travels to the Korean peninsula and the broader shin-hanga practice of issuing prints as commercial keepsakes for major retail events. During the Japanese colonial period, Keijo (Seoul) was home to branches of major Japanese commercial enterprises, and Mitsukoshi's grand Seoul store, opened in 1930, was one of the most prominent. Hasui's treatment of Korean subjects applied his established formal vocabulary — careful graduated washes (bokashi), muted seasonal palette, architectural subjects rendered under atmospheric conditions — to unfamiliar topography. This print and the closely related Keishu version may represent different impressions of the same composition or variants produced for distinct occasions, differing in sky gradation, seasonal coloring, or compositional detail. The subject situates Hasui's work within the complex visual culture of the colonial period while demonstrating the adaptability of his landscape method across geographic contexts.