The Pulguksa Temple, Kyongju — 慶州 佛国寺

Hasui traveled to Korea and Manchuria in 1939, producing a series of continental views during a period when Japanese artists were commissioned to depict sites across the empire. Pulguksa (also Bulguksa) is an eighth-century Buddhist temple complex in Gyeongju, the ancient Silla capital. This print likely depicts the temple's stone-arched bridges (Cheongun-gyo and Baegun-gyo) and tiered wooden halls set against pine-clad hills. The image would employ Hasui's characteristic flat color planes for the painted temple roofs and bokashi gradation in the sky. The Korea series demonstrates how Hasui adapted his Japanese landscape vocabulary to foreign Buddhist architecture, treating Korean monastic sites with the documentary attention he gave to Japanese shrines and temples. Working with publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, Hasui produced these continental views during a period when his domestic landscape practice was already well established. The print stands as part of a relatively brief but coherent foreign-subject portion of his catalog.