New Diet Building

The National Diet Building, completed in 1936 in Nagatachō, served as Japan's parliamentary headquarters and a public symbol of state modernization. As a meisho-e subject from One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo (Dai Tokyo Hyakkei), the composition would emphasize the building's pyramidal central tower and granite-clad mass, applying the famous-places format of Hiroshige's tradition to modern civic architecture. Koizumi's self-carved blocks register the architectural geometry through flat color planes and sharp keyblock lines, with bokashi gradations likely rendering the sky behind the imposing facade. This subject typifies the series' documentary impulse: cataloging the new Tokyo of ferroconcrete public buildings alongside surviving temples and bridges. The print represents the synthesis Koizumi pursued throughout the 1928-1940 series, combining shin-hanga topographic interest with sosaku-hanga authorial control. By including a structure barely complete at the time of carving, Koizumi positioned himself as a chronicler of Tokyo's contemporary urban identity rather than a nostalgic recorder of vanishing tradition.