Sanggye pavilion, Paekyang Temple

Paekyang Temple (Baegyang-sa) is a Buddhist temple in South Cholla Province (present-day South Korea), located in the Naejangsan mountain range. Hasui produced a small but significant body of prints depicting sites on the Korean peninsula during research trips undertaken when Korea was under Japanese colonial administration. The Sanggye pavilion, a wooden structure elevated above the temple precinct, offered a subject that combined traditional Korean Buddhist architectural forms with the forested mountain settings Hasui favored throughout his landscape work. These Korean-subject prints are technically consistent with his Japanese work — oban format, washi substrate, water-based pigments, and sky gradation through bokashi — but they introduced architectural details, such as the specific curvature of Korean eaves and the color conventions of dancheong decorative painting, that distinguished them from his domestic series. The prints represent an unusual chapter in Hasui's career and in the broader shin-hanga movement's engagement with subjects outside Japan proper.